Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
The Nueva School at Bay Meadows is a new high school designed to inspire 21st century learners by offering an integrated “ecology of learning” that enables rapidly evolving pedagogies while it connects students to the complex world around them. It offers a landscape of innovative educational spaces that supports cross-disciplinary engagement and project-based inquiry, fosters a strong learning community, and models healthy, low-carbon living.
Located in a new transit-oriented mixed-use development in San Mateo, California, and targeting LEED Platinum certification, the project reconsiders the traditional suburban high school to optimize community connection, reduce construction and resource use, and limit automobile use. Flexible learning spaces are generalized and distributed to create social/educational territories that de-emphasize association with particular knowledge domains. They “break down the silos” of learning. A variety of outdoor spaces extends this learning landscape and enhances daily connections to the wider community and the natural world.