Schools

The pedagogical guidelines of the primary school in Birmensdorf led to an innovative and unique architectural interpretation. The room sequence stimulates the interaction amongst the different classrooms and offers openness, flexibility and versatility during class. The rooms are visually and physically connected to a continuous learning landscape. The staggering volume allows each classroom to have an additional façade, increasing natural lighting and solar gains. This measure leads to a structured and small-scale interior, creates places of retreat, generates learning niches and gives the students a feeling of security without compromising overall orientation.

The maximal external volume of the house was determined before the start of the design. This limit defined the footprint, the maximum height of the building and the height of the individual floors, which are linked to the existing school building.
The requirement was to design a building containing classrooms, chill-out and communication spaces within this volumetric limit. The partition of the spaces was conducted with the smallest possible amount of architectural dividing elements – four rooms of each floor are separated by four walls, making it possible to avoid the corridors.

The work of the material expresses itself through the unchanging program of our society: “the school”. This project speaks to memory and past and futurs souvenirs. It speaks to the hilly landscape of Cannes and to the Mediterranean Sea.

This project is not just a school, but a thriving eco system where work and education flow with different stages of learning and life. 

The new building closes the existing settlement gap. Due to the location and the volumetric training of the new school the multi-purpose building will be integrated into the building structure without taking away its independence. The new volume mediates between the Hörnlistrasse and the new rest area, between the school building and the multi-purpose building.

A campus is full of experience and the sense of place. The unforgettable leaning life in this campus will go with students and teachers’ lifetime, and give them memories, courage and strength in many times. From this, we have designed “vitality hill” and “the circle of knowledge” which could be the core of campus. It will assume a hundred years of effective educational ideals and cultural heritage, but also the new era of innovation and exploration of the future education model.

The location of the new school is precious thanks to its situation at the core of the Ovalie neighborhood: it is surrounded by the remarkable wooden spaces of the Clos de l’Herminiers and by the large pines of the water castle siding the Paul Valery avenue. Its ZAC conception makes it completely utilize this environment by mainly connecting it with “soft modes”, which allows for a rather exceptional arrangement for a public equipment of this nature. Indeed, we received the opportunity of designing a building in agreement with a major public space on its main facade and create a true synergy between the building and its immediate environment. For a school, the epitome of a citizen location, melting pot of conviviality, dynamism, and openness, this dialogue built between assembly and public space is essential.

The Neeson Cripps Academy is a school for secondary education in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, built for the Cambodian Children’s Fund. Located in a neighborhood of extreme poverty adjacent to the site of the former Steung Meanchey garbage dump, the school provides high-quality education to 400 of the city’s most disadvantaged children, aged 13-18, with a robust English-language program, STEAM curriculum, and globally-connected learning.

The Neeson Cripps Academy is a school for secondary education in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, built for the Cambodian Children’s Fund. Located in a neighborhood of extreme poverty adjacent to the site of the former Steung Meanchey garbage dump, the school provides high-quality education to 400 of the city’s most disadvantaged children, aged 13-18, with a robust English-language program, STEAM curriculum, and globally-connected learning.