New School of Jilovsko
Discovering the richness of our immediate surroundings is the first step in learning about the world. The school is integrated into local ecology. Inviting the forest and natural water management into the site creates a diversity of landscapes.
The heart of the site becomes a node to explore this diversity: spaces to play, explore, exercise, gather, and learn. The school contains a variety of formal and informal, indoor and outdoor, spaces for learning organized around a shared commons.
Location: Jilovsko, Czechia
Status: Competition
Date: 2024
Discovering the richness of our immediate surroundings is the first step in learning about the world. The school is integrated into local ecology. Inviting the forest and natural water management into the site creates a diversity of landscapes. The heart of the site becomes a node to explore this diversity: spaces to play, explore, exercise, gather, and learn. The school contains a variety of formal and informal, indoor and outdoor, spaces for learning organized around a shared commons.
The School of Jílovsko will serve residents of five neighbouring municipalities. This amalgamation will foster new relationships, promote educational excellence, and ensure equal access to high-quality education for all residents. The school will become a central hub for learning and community activity. It will provide a platform for students, parents, and educators from different towns to come together, exchange ideas, and collaborate on educational initiatives. This inclusive approach will create a rich, dynamic, and diverse learning environment, enriching the educational experience beyond Jílovsko.
A central node for the community
The school is centrally located on a public path between important public spaces. The school must embrace its role as a central node that connects residents.
The school site is surrounded by diversity of landscapes: the fields, patches of forest, Sirotčí strouha seasonal creek, the pond, and the Radlík village itself. It is at a connection of two ecological axis - the seasona creek of Sirotčí strouha and the local pond network. The school should act as an ecological connector for the local ecosystem.
Welcoming Local Landscapes
While large portions of the local landscape are used for agriculture, there remain fairly diverse biotopes in the region, from mixed forests to grasslands and wetlands. These biotopes, mapped below (from nature.cz information) can inform the types of landscapes that can come to coexist on site with the school. Based on research and local data, there had been sightings of over one hundred different species within a 2 km radius of the site. These included plants, fungi, birds, amphibians, mammals, reptiles, insects and arachnids. These species predominantly dwelled within riparian, grassland and forest ecosystems. With the proper site and planting strategy, the site itself can become an important connector for wildlife networks and regional ecosystems, allowing children to become stewards of the local ecology.
The site should welcome local landscape typologies, becoming a connector for larger regional networks and habitats: grasslands and wetlands, forests, and productive landscapes.
Four Units
The school is organized into four units. Each unit has a distinct programme, relationship to its context, morphology, height, and expression. Some units are taller than others. Some have accessible green roofs.
Unit 1 is tallest and contains all Tier II classrooms. Unit 2 is of middle height and contains all Tier I classrooms. Unit 3 contains pre-school and school administration. Unit 4 contains the gym.
Ground Floor Programme Distribution
On the ground floor the program is distrubuted into different wings. Kitchen and Cafeteria is in Unit 1. Afterschool and Library in Unit 2. Unit 3 contains pre-school and school administration. Unit 4 contains the gym.
The wings of the ground floor connect to the main hall in the centre.
Hierarchy of Spaces
On a typical floor, the programme is organized hierarchically. An atrium shared by the entire school is in the centre of the floorplate. Smaller common spaces, shared by a cluster of classrooms are accessed off of the atrium. Classrooms and other rooms are accessed from these smaller common spaces. Each common space opens onto a terrace.
Each cluster of classrooms contains the following: core classrooms for two grades, specialized classrooms and other rooms shared by an entire tier, washrooms, common spaces, and an outdoor space.
Skola Smíchov
Toronto-based Office Ou has been selected as the winner of an international competition to design a new public school in the historic Smichov district of Prague. The school has received its final municipal construction permit and is expected to be completed by 2026.
| Location: | Prague, Czech Republic |
|---|---|
| Status: | Competition Winner (Construction Start Spring 2025) |
| Date: | 2018 - Present |
| Local AOR: | M1 |
Office Ou has been selected as the winner of an international competition to design a new public school in the historic Smichov district of Prague. Organized by the Centre for Central European Architecture (CCEA MOBA) on behalf of the City of Prague, the competition drew 66 entries from around the world.
Designed in collaboration with Poland’s INOSTUDIO Architects, Office Ou’s Smichov elementary school will be the first new urban public school built in central Prague in nearly 100 years. The new 10,000 m2 building will accommodate approximately 540 students aged 6 to 14. It is located within the ambitious Smichov City redevelopment, which aims to transform some 200,000 m2 of former urban railway lands near Prague’s historic centre into a mixed-use community that prioritizes green space, walkability, and a fine-grained urban fabric.
The school's design is guided by the idea of fostering a sense of social and environmental stewardship in students. This can be seen as learning how to take care, at a scale that expands as children grow: taking care of themselves, of their classmates, of the school community, and finally of the wider urban community and natural world. A building can support this by offering opportunities for students to engage with the city and with nature, to see themselves as part of a wider community, and find connections between classroom learning and the outside world.
At the site level, the building forms an urban edge to the main neighborhood boulevard, where the main entry is located along with amenity spaces open for public use after school hours. The playing field and running track on the east steps to the public park with a set of tiered steps, and the groundkeeper's house is placed to watch over the vehicle dropoff and secondary entrance.
The building itself is conceived of as a simple, gridded framework, populated by classrooms, gyms, offices, terraces, gardens, etc. This frame formally unifies the building while allowing the diversity and individuality of the different program elements to flourish. Internally, the school is organized around a central atrium and stair that connects all floors and lands at the auditorium. This serves as the central gathering space for the school community. The ground level contains the major shared spaces including the cafeteria, auditorium, gyms, club rooms. Level +1 is reserved for Tier 1 (junior) students, Level +2 is for Tier 2 (senior) students, and Level +3 is for specialty classrooms, each with its own quietly whimsical roof shape. Rooftop terraces and courtyards bring light deep into the building, and provide secure play spaces and gardens. Individual classrooms are clearly legible within their grid, and their balcony spaces encourage students and teachers to show their work off to the city. The entire building speaks of its internal life, and hopefully encourages students to see it as their school, home, and community.
Level 0
Level +1
Level +3
Stará Boleslav School
A school that nurtures growth through diverse encounters.
| Location: | Stará Boleslav, Czechia |
|---|---|
| Status: | Competition Finalist |
| Date: | 2023 |
To cultivate the development of a whole person, a school should facilitate a diversity of interactions between people, places, ecologies, and things. These interactions exist at multiple scales: at a student’s desk, in the classroom, in communal spaces shared by a single grade/several grades/the whole tier/the entire school and in the world beyond it. The courtyard, at the heart of the school, is an assemblage where the whole diversity of the school comes together. Around this courtyard, programmatic spaces are organized in clusters (sports, food, performance, core and specialized classrooms)
The school is connected to the broader world far beyond the boundaries of its site. It provides opportunities to connect to social and ecological networks. Landscapes and public spaces that bring local ecosystems and community into the school are located along the perimeter (and roof) of the school.
Jan Vodnansky School: Diversity Nurtures Unique Educational Journeys
The school is a collection of diverse educational opportunities: classrooms, spaces for performance and display, nooks for small gatherings, lounges and playgrounds for group interactions, gardens for growing vegetables and for supporting pollinators and other species. All organized around a central shared atrium.
| Location: | Prague, Czech Republic |
|---|---|
| Status: | Competition Entry |
| Date: | 2022 |
The school is a collection of diverse educational opportunities: classrooms, spaces for performance and display, nooks for small gatherings, lounges and playgrounds for group interactions, gardens for growing vegetables and for supporting pollinators and other species. All organized around a central shared atrium.
Diversity enables children to create their own educational journeys, and grow through sharing the world in their personal, unique way.
Connectivity Through Shared Spaces
The school is structured in a way that creates two interconnected wings of program: The main school wing and the gym, events and support wing:
The main school wing contains all classrooms and central administrative programs, with early education at grade (near the outdoor play area), tier one on the 1st floor, tier two on the 2nd floor and specialized classrooms distributed on the third floor and within the base.
Language classrooms and office spaces are divided equally among all floors. The gym and support wing has the kitchens, loading, cafeteria and individual access at grade, upon which all gyms, lockers and sports fields are located.
This wing can operate independently before and after hours, facilitating not only use by the local community, but also creating a safe loading and food pickup strategy that doesn’t interfere with the day-to-day operations of the school.
Operational Layout
While it is a playful space for creativity and growth, the school is also organized as to maximize efficiency and safe access for both children and staff. Dedicated access is created for younger and older children, while shared spaces, core and specialized classrooms are situated to maximize accessibility.
