With this new school the client wanted to create a premium international co-ed facility with an emphasis on flexible design to accommodate different modes of learning from lectures and discussions to seminars and small group activities.
Breaking down the idea of two separate schools and focusing on shared values is a fundamental part of our approach to the design of the masterplan.
Connective spaces and accent walls are combined with a neutral palette backdrop and connecting views to and from the staircase promote interaction and a sense of community in the school. Transferrable furniture assures flexibility paired with functionality and a bright colour palette together with the use of natural materials create an inviting, sense evoking ambiance and environment for students to inhabit.
The initial key spaces of the ISG school campus immediately communicates the ethos of the school and its aim for excellence. The parents’ café at the main entrance creates a welcoming and immediate contact point for visitors while the cafeteria is designed as a space where mealtimes for students are enjoyable, social and educational moments.
The kindergarten courtyard in the middle of the masterplan is a fun external learning space that connects both curriculums. It is boundary free and designed to encourage social interaction between the students outside of their normal friendship circles and laying the foundation for greater collaboration between both schools.
Both junior schools are focused on learning hubs located at the ground floor adjacent to the early years classrooms and connected vertically via a three-storey atrium and oversized amphitheatre stairs designed for assemblies and presentations.
The senior schools encourage collaboration through shared sports facilities including the external play courts, swimming pool, sprint track, gym, and dance studio.
The design direction is an optimal balance between architecture and environment, tradition and innovation, form, and function to create a nurturing environment for students and faculty. The new school provides an opportunity to rethink and reinvent educational architecture. It is an opportunity to offer a balanced schooling solution that embodies a flexible delivery of curriculum for the sciences, language, math, creative media, communication, wealth creation and enterprise, encouraging character, tolerance, global perspective, and respect, within a fittingly innovative physically interactive, playful, stimulating and inspiring school environment.
The school will accommodate both American and British curriculums within an interconnected series of buildings with shared facilities including sports and underground spaces.