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The client developed the first stage of the British International School Ensemble - including the primary educational cycle - a few years ago, regenerating and extending an old existing building. The strategic, functional and technical brief for the new building were established by means of several meetings with the client’s representatives (school president and director, project manager, teachers). The pedagogical principles were clear defined, the ambition for atmosphere, elegance, resilience and a sustainable building also. Our first sketches investigated different types of approaches for a school building functioning as a gateway – among them the “plaza”, “atrium”, “street”, “spine” schemes. Finally, a compact atrio building option was preferred.
Together with the existent primary school building, the new high school building is embracing the existing park, with its old valuable trees. The park becomes the real heart of the ensemble, thus bringing together two generations of students. The British School campus is located on the northern edge of the city in a residential area with large plots nearby, which will be developed and urbanised in the future.
The high school is designed as a nZEB, with minimum 30% of the required energy provided by means of renewable energy sources. As such, the building is properly insulated, with heating/cooling provided by a heat pumps system complemented by a gas furnace, electricity provided by photovoltaic panels on the roof terrace. The ventilation is based on a decentralized heat-recovery units system for the classrooms and an AHU unit for the canteen. Natural ventilation has also been left as an option, with intakes based on the ground-floor access doors and outlets consisting of the smoke hatches included in the skylight over the atrium. A low environment impact was considered as well from the perspective of functioning and maintenance costs (LED lighting fixtures, high-efficiency MEP equipments etc).
The new building is a GATE to enter in the whole ensemble, an “inner city” with a longitudinal axis and an ascensional topology towards the library at “piano nobile”, with two key spatial components – the “piazza” and the amphitheatre positioned within an inner atrio. Near the entrance there are the art classrooms; oriented and expanding towards the park behind, a partially double-height canteen comes as a surprise. The library develops a double height space as well, its second floor opening itself to the park from above with a large terrace. Oblique views, the sunlight playing inside, two suspended pedestrian walkways at the second floor and the Bucida tree inside at the ground floor generate a strong urban atmosphere, welcoming the students. The exposed concrete and mechanical equipments contribute to a relatively industrial image, their roughness being a suitable and contrasting background for the sunlight effects, while compensated by softer finishes and furnishings. The inside/outside contrast is amplified by the simple, slightly-curved, horizontal exterior volume, partially covered in klinker. This contrast balances between the exterior clearly showing the educational function, and the interior with its spatially surprising components and its urban, city-like atmosphere.
As a parent of 2 students enrolled in the British International School, my role as a client is doubled by the concern for my children’s wellbeing and education. As such, I have witnessed with great joy the reaction of the students: such a surprise to see how the new building has sparked a new attitude from the students, how they have taken over the different spaces, making them their own, wanting to spend more time in the library, and generally how they feel more mature and responsible.
ANDREESCU & GAIVORONSCHI is celebrating 34 years in the Romanian contemporary architecture. A series of projects and edifices obtained recognition. Among the over 60 national and international distinctions, the most important are: The European Award for Steel Construction ECCS in 1997; Nominated for The Mies van der Rohe EU Architecture Award, 2008, 2012; Shortlisted at WAF, Barcelona 2010, Berlin 2016; Winner at BIG SEE Architecture Festival Ljubljana 2019, 2020, 2021, President’s International Jury Saint Gobain Gyproc Trophy Prize 2021, Winner at GDA 2018, 2020, BETA Prizes in 2016 and 2018. Present on websites such as ARCHDAILY, ARCHITIZER, etc., exhibited at the Venice Biennial in 1991, 1996, in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Budapest, Leipzig, Thessaloniki, Szeged, Vienna, Istanbul, Brussels, Tokyo, Singapore, Berlin, Barcelona, Seoul, Frankfurt, Ljubljana, Novi Sad, etc.
