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Bjarke Ingels Group recently revealed the plans for their latest project in the United States. After previous major announcements such as the masterplan for redeveloping the Civic Arena lands in Pittsburgh, the Copenhagen- and New York-based architecture firm will be in charge of designing a new secondary school in Arlington, Virginia. With a total surface area of 15,800 square metres, the $80.2 million building located at the edge of the Rosslyn business district will boast some unique design features.
Conceived for 775 students, the school is designed to make the most of the limited surface of the lot and will replace the existing school that currently occupies the site. Although it is situated in a dense urban environment and spans five floors, architects have developed the new school so that each classroom has direct access to the outside, creating the feeling of a single-storey edifice. The result is a series of five pivoting bars stacked on top of each other, each of which houses several classrooms.
The rotation of those five elements creates a series of cascading landscaped terraces that expand the school's available outdoor space, with a different use assigned to each level. The larger facilities such as the gymnasium, the auditorium, and administrative offices will be located at the base of the building and accessible directly from street level along Wilson Boulevard. A semi-underground courtyard as well as a covered entryway will be created beneath two corners of the sports field by artificially raising the ground above street level.
The new Wilson Secondary School's delivery date is currently scheduled for 2019. What do you think about this design? Let us know by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page, or by visiting the Forum thread dedicated to this project. More renderings and information are also available in the project's Database file, linked below.
