Cleveland Design Competition : Campus International School / Strip School

The strip school is a new concept. Its development is based on the current Campus International School (CIS). It welcomes first and second grade students. In this school, students share a common space. This configuration promotes hardware sharing and enriched interactions.
The strip school takes these principles. Its organizational scheme extends the concept to over 40 classes. The strip starts from the ground and moves up wrapping around a heart. The heart includes all areas of education required for the school's operations (which are also shared). They are stacked, on the ground floor you find the dining hall (for 200 students) and the kitchen, followed by alternating functions:
• physical education facilities, recreation space,
• special education spaces, visual art, music rooms, library, media center, technology lab...
The amphitheatre is at the final level of the heart. Teacher's rooms and administration are in the strip after the classrooms. Outside, on top of classes, children have the opportunity to learn gardening. For teens, the roof of the school is another space for recreation.
The strip forms a single space of almost 2000 feet long and 23 feet wide. Finesse allows easy interactions with upper and lower grades, but does not allow mixing between children with too much age difference. Children with difficulties or who mastering their learning will simply go to classroom next door. When it is necessary, the strip can be interrupted by using sliding walls bringing the design back to a standard school configuration. During his evolution in the strip, a student will appreciate Cleveland's diverse landscape. In the north: Lake Erie, in the south: Cleveland State University (CSU), in the East: the suburbs and to the west : the CBD.
CIS has an important place in CSU. Located in the north of the campus, it marks the entrance to CSU from Superior Avenue. Its spiral organization allows a compact volume that frees up a large park at ground level. The green roof above the classrooms of CSI can be part of the green corridor linking the north and south of the campus through 19th Street. The walker can reach 130 feet in height. CSI will act as an urban energizer for CSU and then, on a larger scale, for Cleveland. CSI will not only be a place of education, it will also be a public place that will be part of the city, a belvedere that will enable the child to learn, a school that will allow him to see his city.

Location
   Cleveland - Ohio, USA

Client
   Cleveland Design Competition

Architect
   olijf.fr, Olivier Terrisse

Program
   imagine a vision for a new kindergarten
   through 12 grades

Surface
   13.000 sqm

Time-table
   competition : august 2011