International project:
Community School
Photography by John Gollings
this school two full sports halls for community
uses, a commercial kitchen and community
gardens, an adult education centre, a pre-school
centre, a broadcasting studio and maternal and
infant welfare facilities and services. They are
now also developing two rugby pitches in their
community park at the front of the school.
The school acts as a walled city, protecting
small tailored communal teaching spaces
linked with open courtyards. The walled city
metaphor is one that had relevance with many
of the suburbs new ethnic groups. The ebullient
brickwork patterning of the outer wall recalls
the rich patterning of the traditional dress of
some of these groups. The profile of the wall
was developed by compressing the silhouetted
imagery of the surrounding suburban fabric
into this new composition. These strategies
were an attempt to produce a new and inclusive
architecture for this unique community.
The wall is both functionally protective and a
civic gesture – an invitation to participate in
the shaping of Dallas’ future. The project is a
sensitive response to a community’s needs,
generating a unique educational environment,
and producing a focal point for Dallas, both as a
place of common ground, and as a generator for
the suburb’s future potential. AD
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