The concept is to create an iconic instantly recognizable school that can adapt to different sites and climatic conditions. The school has been designed as a kit of parts that can be transformed and transfigured in different ways depending on each brief and site. The usable spaces are diagonal to enable them to interlock, create visual and spatial interest and have multiple orientations for natural daylight and prevailing winds. These forms also ensure the building can take full advantage of the site even where neighbouring properties are built up to the boundary.
The school has been designed as a vertical campus around a central courtyard with the different schools and age groups being accommodated at different levels. Outside play areas are diverse, partially open to sky and partially covered for all weather use.The materiality is of a simple concrete frame structure with masonry infill and a brick climatic skin that wraps around the functional spaces to keep them cool. This skin is designed as a brise soleil to shade the inner walls and encourage flow of air through the building.
The interstitial spaces between skin and building are sometimes used for circulation and outdoor seating and form the organizing principle of the programme. Toilet and stair cores are located at strategic corners near entrances into the building.
The ground floor play areas are elaborated with inclined planes that continue the faceted nature of the scheme and provide, seating, climbing and play features. Courtyard spaces at different levels break up the large volumes to create more of an educational hillside village reminiscent of the Dogon villages in the North of the region.