Educational design

Empowering learners for real-world independence For Foundation learners, the study environment is especially important. Space isn’t just about walls and classrooms; it's about building confidence and independence: learning how to self-manage in facilities that reflect the real world. Nikhilesh Haval Nikhilesh Haval Previously dark and segmented, the old environment placed unnecessary strain on staff and students. Spaces felt cluttered, overwhelming and hard to navigate. The brief was learner-centric, focusing on experience and layouts designed to support independence with a sensitive, sensory approach. AxisHouse was chosen to deliver a Fit-Out that balanced wellbeing with functionality. The College required adaptable zoni... More

Commercial experience and interior design project for the ITESM university Campus Monterrey. The project is located inside the university's new stadium, making it the main welcome area for visitors and the Borregos’ fans. The client needed a space that showcased current student MVP’s but also connected with the university’s alumni showing vintage uniforms, the school’s trophies and memorabilia. Our solution to this tight space was to create a circular flow around a vertical trophy exhibit, using the existing walls as display space. As you enter the room, the flow of circulation is marked on the ground with the traditional X and O’s of strategy diagrams, the public is welcomed by a floor to ceiling collage of vi... More

Designed by Álvarez-Díaz & Villalón (AD&V), the Innovation Center of Science, Technology and Engineering at the Baldwin School of Puerto Rico will be a new two-story, 16,800-square-foot LEED certified building. It will be ideally situated on the beautiful existing 23-acre campus of Baldwin, one of the premier independent English language day schools in Puerto Rico. The first floor is being developed around a Maker Space, a central classroom where students with mutual interests can work together on projects while sharing ideas, equipment and knowledge. The building design is flexible, diverse and open to acknowledge a range of learners, and to reinforce critical thinking as well as complex problem solving. Scie... More

The Fantails Estate Early childhood centre is set over 3½ hectares of land, catering for 154 children ranging from babies to pre-schoolers. Framed by paddocks, animals and trees, this early learning centre strikes a balance between state-of-the-art, modern educational spaces and sits sensitively within its rural New Zealand context.  Caption The site presented a shared vision of a unique ‘luxury lodge’ for children. Our team at Collingridge and Smith Architects (UK) implemented the balanced blend of functionality, aesthetics and environmental sustainability into the project.    At the end of a winding, estate-like driveways, the centre sits as six individual blocks fanned out around a striking geomet... More

The Grossmont Union High School District entrusted HED with the development and design of an iconic, multifunctional new event center. Sited on the El Capitan High School campus, the design needed to meet four primary goals: represent the cultural heritage of El Capitan High School; incorporate indoor and outdoor areas; provide students with a unique learning experience; and seamlessly integrate with the existing on-campus architecture.   To achieve these goals, we began by dividing the complex into two buildings, establishing a dramatic, focal entrance and creating connected outdoor spaces. Inspired by the campus and by El Capitan’s alma mater, we designed the structure to reference the lines and angles of the region&r... More

As a pioneering example of modernist architecture in Turkey, the Faculty of Architecture building holds an important place both in the tradition of the Middle East Technical University and in the architectural history of the country. The building is designed by Altuğ and Behruz Çinici with their competition winning project in 1961. The design stands out with its courageous attitude to merge work space with social life in order to foster innovation.The basement workshop space, originally designed to house the furniture production functions for the campus, eventually lost its duty as the in-house production strategies were discontinued by the university, leaving heavy unused equipment and workshops behind. The space had then become zone with... More

bureau SLA designed a school building that is a teacher itself. In the Nature and Environment Learning Centre in Amsterdam sustainability can be easily experienced and understood by children. In Amsterdam, every primary school student is provided with his or her own 6m2 garden to care for. These students are also enrolled in classes where they learn about nature and the environment, held in one of the buildings dedicated to the purpose throughout Amsterdam. As of this year though, Amsterdam Noord becomes host to a new building designed specifically for this purpose: the Nature & Environment Learning Centre.This new building replaces two temporary structures (which housed the program for the previous five years). In addition to bein... More

John McAslan + Partners was appointed to design a new building for Oasis Academy - a specialist Maths, ICT and Music school - on a former industrial site in Enfield. Completed in 2012, the ambitious scheme delivers a vibrant new learning campus for the Academy’s primary secondary and sixth-form students. It will also play a pivotal role in a local regeneration plan for the Borough. Located on a former industrial site, the project sits at the heart of a wider urban regeneration plan for Ponders End and South Street. This ambitious scheme delivers a vibrant new learning campus for the Academy’s primary, secondary and sixth-form students and will also play a pivotal role as a new community hub, with a range of cultural and sports acti... More

Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture’s extension to Kollastaden School, situated in the Centre of Kungsbacka, is one of the largest Passive House buildings in Sweden. The building is strategically placed to envelope a communal schoolyard between the new and the old, providing a playful, inspiring and sustainable school environment centered around the students. There is parking for both cars and bicycles and zones for the school taxi and the schoolyard is used for activities that support learning. The building has a compact shape to make it more energy efficient, and the school interior combines open spaces with a calm atmosphere. On the north side of the school a communal schoolyard connects the new and the old buildings. It was designed to be a... More