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A steep site posed accessibility challenges but offered inspiring campus views. Native landscape sets the stage for future campus projects.
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Floor Plans: Five floors of academic program in two wings. A basement level of parking and mechanical is not shown.
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Axon View: Compact instructional wings are linked by the Collaboration Commons. They sit atop a ground floor of public amenities.
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Classroom Planning: Performance studies were done for flexibility and for glare and daylighting.
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Sustainability was a major driver of design decisions and is manifest in many ways throughout the project.
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The new high school sits atop a hilly site where faculty apartments previously stood. Campus traffic was rerouted to create a multilevel pedestrian experience.
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Building transparency is dramatic at twilight. An accessible entrance into the public “B1” level provides the most direct connection to the rest of campus.
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A high-performance sunshade system is complemented by warm masonry, stone, and wood elements that reference Korean culture.
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The Collaboration Commons offers a powerful toolkit for learning outside the classroom.
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The Collaboration Commons is animated by daylight and a generous stair that encourages movement.
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Students access the Collaboration Commons all day long, and interface with it in many ways, from studying to socializing, chilling out, and napping.
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A highly flexible and technology-rich classroom ecosystem was a primary planning driver. If the learning spaces aren’t effective, nothing else matters.
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Standard classrooms are supplemented with sophisticated science labs and maker space, all of which are visible when walking down any given corridor.
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Located on the top floor, the art studios have some of the most impressive space, including direct access to rooftop sculpture gardens.
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A drama lab turns the entire top floor, including commons and roof garden, into performance space.
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Public program on the ground floor invites the whole campus in, and provides a welcoming environment for parents to hang out and socialize.
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A beautiful library, a multipurpose room inspired by Korean walls, and ample dining space around the cafeteria make the ground floor a prime destination.
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2018 Yoon,Joonhwan
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2018 Yoon,Joonhwan
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2018 Yoon,Joonhwan
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2018 Yoon,Joonhwan
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2018 Yoon,Joonhwan
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2018 Yoon,Joonhwan
Seoul Foreign School is a 108-year-old private international school in Seoul, South Korea. Its previous high school was one of the oldest buildings on campus, in poor condition and ill-suited for modern pedagogy. A new high school building was the prime priority defined by an extensive master planning effort. The mandate of the new building was not simply to replace the existing facility in-kind, but to provide an entirely new learning environment – a hybrid collegiate/high school experience that augments traditional teaching spaces with an abundance of collaborative learning spaces for peer-to-peer engagement both within the building and within the landscape. The resulting new High School is a beautiful and efficient machine for contemporary learning, rooted in its context while shaped by pedagogical innovation. This is a design intended to set a new standard not only for future phases of development at Seoul Foreign School but throughout Korea and beyond.
Traditional Korean architecture is marked by openness and privacy: a delicate balance of bringing the landscape inside while providing separation. The new high school follows in this tradition to support learning both inside and outside the classroom. First, the classroom—the fundamental building block of the school—was rigorously studied and refined in collaboration with teachers and administrators to develop an ideal size and proportion that was flexible enough to support nearly every desired teaching style and desk configuration imaginable. Beyond the classroom is a robust network of “soft space” for learning and collaboration, similar to what one would find on a university campus. The building is organized into two wings of efficiently arranged classrooms and labs. Connecting the wings is a central hub on every floor comprised of collaboration zones with adjacent faculty workspaces that foster new opportunities for student-to-student, student-to-teacher, and teacher-to-teacher interactions. Meanwhile, the design takes full advantage of one of the School’s cherished assets—its incomparable site—by drawing the landscape into the building through the use of natural materials and views, and by drawing the classroom into the landscape through multiple outdoor learning spaces.
Seoul Foreign School, New High School
Category
High School
Description
Project Location:
Seoul, South Korea, NY
Architecture Firm
Ennead Architects
New York, NY
ennead.com
n/a
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ennead-architects/
n/a
Photography By:
2018 Yoon,Joonhwan
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