Brian Zeller, Realtor®
In honor of the first day of school in my part of New York, I've scoured the internet for the world's most architecturally impressive high schools and put them in a list. Vote for your favorite!
Lycée International de l’Est Parisien, Noisy-le-Grand, France
Architects: Ateliers 2/3/4/
Photograph by Luc Boegly
From the Architect: Designed to eventually accommodate more than 1200 students, the new International High School to the east of Paris is deeply rooted in the Grand Paris (Greater Paris) project : to rebalance the city to the east as well as its insertion, at several scales, within the vast landscape at the edge of the Marne-la-Vallée plateau, overlooking the Marne River and the capital - both poised and raised on the city horizon. The project is also strongly influenced by its exemplary sustainable development approach and durability : built on a tight budget that is expressed in the explicit simplicity of its volumes. The in-depth work on energy and the elements (water/air/earth) makes it the first 'zero energy' high school in the Ile-de-France Region.
De Fu Junior High School, Jiading, Shanghai, China
Architects: Atelier GOM
Photograph by Su Shengliang, Zhang Jiajing
From the architect: De Fu Junior High School is located on De Fu road, Jiading new town, Shanghai. It is a campus which can accommodate 24 junior high school classes. On the north side, it is adjacent to the De Fu primary school, and for the south side, there is normal residential area. There are two buildings on campus respectively: the main teaching building, gymnasium and canteen... The space of courtyard has always been the essence of Chinese traditional architecture. When deals with the relationship between architecture and site, the architect subtly designs four courtyards. Inspired by the culture of Chinese characters, these four courtyards present themselves as a Tian-font layout. The dimension of the four courtyard is 25m on each side and each of them has its own form and they connect each other with the ground floor. They are like four seasons, students can feel the time changes, sunrise and sunset in these four courtyards.
Rainha Dona Leonor High School, Lisboa, Portugal
Architects: Atelier dos Remédios
Photograph by Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
From the architect: The Rainha Dona Leonor High School is located in the Alvalade neighbourhood, in between Lisbon`s main artery and 1º de Maio sport stadium. The orginal edifice dates back from 1960 with its modernist taste that constrats the neighbouring residential buildings. The intervention at Rainha Dona Leonor High School sought to uplift a rundown school of the city. The proposed modernization program aimed to open the school to the community during and after school hours with the introduction of new facilities such as a covered sports field and a multipurpose hall... On the inside of this volumetric addition, numerous aerial galleries can be found criss-crossing above each other in an open quadruple height hall. These suspended pathways have defined the circulation logic of the school´s interior by connecting the different rooms of the building to this open space.
Nordahl Grieg High School, Bergen, Norway
Architects: LINK arkitektur
Photographs by Hundven-Clements Photography
From the Architect: The project Nordahl Grieg high school with its 14'000m2 is the result of a 1.prize in an EEA design competition in 2006. The school was completed in 2010... To design a high school in Bergen on the west coast of Norway means to build an ideal place for studying and free time activities in a region with dark winter months and rain approximately 240 days each year! The building consists of two large volumes jointly positioned, with sport facilities in one volume and the educational part in the other one. There is a copper roof folded around the building body and inserted glass facades with colored prints to create life. A mostly transparent facade utilizes the precious sunlight. The randomly distributed strong coloured windows, glass doors and accentuated placed furnishings create striking interior contrasts and a friendly ambience.
Binhai Xiaowai High School
Architects: HHD FUN
Photographs by Wang Zhenfei
From the architect: Binhai Xiaowai High School is located in Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, a low energy consumption high school with 36 standard classes and National Green Building Label-3 rated. Since the site area is limited, the architect tried to compactly position various functionalities in order to save space. On the north side of the site is the multi-use building, including classrooms, laboratories, offices, libraries, presentation rooms, dining halls, exhibition halls, parking space for bikes, and etc.
Brian Zeller is a REALTOR® to buyers and sellers of fine homes in northern Ulster and Dutchess Counties in New York, including the communities of Kingston, New Paltz, Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Rhineclif...
