Concordia International School Shanghai (ciss) is an independent private day school for students Pre-K through Grade 12. following the master plan update and implementation of Phase iii - a new elementary school and arts center, the same architects moved onto the programming, planning and design of the final phase – a new high school building and renovation of the existing.

As the final leg of ciss’s phased master plan for expansion, the new high school facility is a physical manifestation of a student’s final threshold before moving onto college and post-graduate life. the maturity and freedom exhibited in the design of this building evokes the spirit with which the school hopes students will take with them as they move forward.

While we posted an article about the project when it was completed back in January, we are revisiting the project with more information and photographs with the series on the recipients of the 2010 Architecture for Education (CAE) Awards.

All images ⓒ ShuHe

The high school and elementary school design focuses on the experiential quality of architecture as an essential ingredient for meaningful learning. The design reinterprets the original character of the site, thereby imbuing the new experience with a rich and varied relationship to nature.

Through mountain views, sloping terrain, courtyards, bridges, and a tactile landscape of salvaged logs and boulders, nature enriches the learning environment. The site character is both the poetic inspiration for and an active participant in the daily experience of the users of the school.

In light of the increasing significance of environmental and ecological programs in the new economy, the Arizona Board of Regents had established the interdisciplinary Center for Sustainable Environments (CSE) at Northern Arizona University. The Center serves as a catalyst for many on and off campus projects, and has a direct and immediate impact on the community and the regional economy.

Since its initiation, CSE has developed over twenty partnerships, and this rapid expansion has created a need for additional research space on the Northern Arizona University campus. Infrastructure needs include space for developing applied research projects, as well as the technology and infrastructure needed to disseminate environmental knowledge to the region and the nation.

Given these needs, the administration at Northern Arizona University developed a plan to design and build a unique building that would meet the expanding research needs of the Center for Sustainable Environments and its public and private partners.

Founded in 1898 by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Sacred Heart Preparatory is a 550-student co-educational high school located on the 64-acre campus of the K-12 Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, California. The historic red brick Main Building, built at the school's founding, still dominates the center of campus. The school's mission is to provide an integrated approach to learning, which is spiritually nurturing and academically challenging, producing students who are "committed to social justice, respectful of creation and prepared to be stewards of the earth's resources."

Michael J. Homer was an early Silicon Valley pioneer who played an important role in the development of the personal computer, the Internet, and the hand-held digital device. In honor of Mr. Homer and as a reflection of the innovative Silicon Valley culture he helped to create, the Homer Center brings together Science, Community and Nature in one unique educational environment. The 44,109-square foot building incorporates an unusual hybrid program of eight sophisticated science classrooms, a 700-seat auditorium, a 350-seat dining hall with full commercial kitchen, and administrative offices in spaces that inspire scientific inquiry, foster a strong learning community and promote environmental stewardship.

Photographs by Tim Griffith

Manassas Park, Virginia, is a small, independent city surrounded by the affluent northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Incorporated in 1975, the city cobbled together a series of pre-manufactured mobile buildings to create its first generation of school facilities from scratch.

Ten years ago, the city began rebuilding all of its public schools—an enormous challenge in a city with an extremely low tax base.

The new Manassas Park Elementary School and Pre-Kindergarten (MPES) are the fourth and fifth new schools, and they join the earlier Cougar Elementary School to complete the city's elementary campus.

The campus sits tightly surrounded by tract housing, private forest, and the historic landmark Camp Carondelet—forested winter quarters of the Confederacy's Louisiana Brigade between the first and second Manassas campaigns.

The project is part of our series featuring the AIA's 2010 COTE Top Ten Green Projects.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, designed by global architectural firm HOK, has been selected as one of the 2010 "Top Ten Green Projects" by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE). The annual awards program honors sustainable projects resulting from an integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology.

The project is a new international, graduate-level research university established to drive innovation in science and technology and to support world-class research in areas such as energy and the environment. As Saudi Arabia's first LEED certified project and the world's largest LEED-NC Platinum project, KAUST is a new international, graduate-level research university established to drive innovation in science and technology and to support world-class research in areas such as energy and the environment.

All photographs: © JB Picoulet
All plans and Renderings: © HOK

Yale University has completed construction of a new ultra-green building—designed to use 50 percent less energy than a comparably sized modern building—for its School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). Kroon Hall achieves its remarkable energy savings from a host of design elements and technical strategies molded to fit the building’s New England weather and climate.

Kroon Hall is named in honor of benefactor Richard Kroon (`64) and Mary Jane Kroon.

“Yale’s most sustainable building to date reflects the School’s mission and the intellectual passion of its faculty and students,” said Yale President Richard C. Levin. “It is an extraordinary design, and we hope its energy-saving concepts will be emulated widely and inspire others to advance green building even further.”

All photographs by Morley Von Sternberg

On a prominent urban site, the Broadway Building for the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology will form the gateway to a revitalised UTS City Campus and Sydney’s southern CBD.

Broadway Building forms a primary campus gateway on Broadway and Jones Street

Selected from over 60 entries in an international two-stage design competition, the design engages with the urban context and – making a clear statement that it is a university of technology building – conveys the university’s position at the intersection of creativity and technology.