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Wilkes Elementary School
Wilkes Elementary School
Bainbridge Island, WA, United States
Project Featured on Apr 02, 2015
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Wilkes Elementary School
Bainbridge Island, WA, United States
Project Featured on Apr 02, 2015
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2012
SIZE
25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft
BUDGET
$10M - 50M
The design for Wilkes Elementary embraces visual and physical connectivity so that learning can happen everywhere. Through transparency, the needs of the whole child are addressed: physical limitations to educational opportunities are removed, a range of learning styles are supported, and lines between where learning or play can occur are blurred. The functional arrangement fosters collaboration and creates opportunities for variation in scales of learning.
The building extends from a hillside into the site, alternating structure and courtyard to optimize natural daylight and erase physical separation. Courtyards slope at the east end to merge with the playground, gardens, and athletic fields that link the school to the community, while the fingers of the building reach out above, sheltering play spaces below.
Within the school, students experience a seamless transition from classrooms to interior and exterior shared learning spaces. Glazing reinforces connectivity between classrooms and interior shared learning areas, and with the courtyards beyond. The size and composition of each learning space varies in response to the developmental needs of students to complement the school’s personalized and ability-based curriculum. In this way, the school supports dynamic teaching and independent learning that increases student accountability.
A large covered area at the entry encourages community involvement by supporting casual interactions as parents drop off and pick up students. This entry feeds into the main public corridor, which provides convenient access to the library, music room, commons and community gymnasium, making Wilkes the largest public building, and new cultural hub, for the north end of Bainbridge Island.
With a strong community ethos as caretakers of the land, sustainable design elements are fully integrated to minimize the building’s environmental impact and operating costs, while maximizing benefits to teaching and learning. Sustainable strategies include 100% on-site stormwater infiltration, an innovative large on-site septic system to treat 100% of wastewater, 100% porous paving, and heat recovery. A hybrid heating system comprising forty geo-thermal wells and a water-to-water heat pump with electric boiler assist is anticipated to be 40% more efficient than a baseline elementary school system. Student- and community-owned garden beds within the playground support a programmatic partnership between Wilkes and a nearby working farm. Interior spaces benefit from non-toxic finish materials, operable windows, natural cooling, and radiant floors that increase thermal comfort in the zone where students sit and play.
The building extends from a hillside into the site, alternating structure and courtyard to optimize natural daylight and erase physical separation. Courtyards slope at the east end to merge with the playground, gardens, and athletic fields that link the school to the community, while the fingers of the building reach out above, sheltering play spaces below.
Within the school, students experience a seamless transition from classrooms to interior and exterior shared learning spaces. Glazing reinforces connectivity between classrooms and interior shared learning areas, and with the courtyards beyond. The size and composition of each learning space varies in response to the developmental needs of students to complement the school’s personalized and ability-based curriculum. In this way, the school supports dynamic teaching and independent learning that increases student accountability.
A large covered area at the entry encourages community involvement by supporting casual interactions as parents drop off and pick up students. This entry feeds into the main public corridor, which provides convenient access to the library, music room, commons and community gymnasium, making Wilkes the largest public building, and new cultural hub, for the north end of Bainbridge Island.
With a strong community ethos as caretakers of the land, sustainable design elements are fully integrated to minimize the building’s environmental impact and operating costs, while maximizing benefits to teaching and learning. Sustainable strategies include 100% on-site stormwater infiltration, an innovative large on-site septic system to treat 100% of wastewater, 100% porous paving, and heat recovery. A hybrid heating system comprising forty geo-thermal wells and a water-to-water heat pump with electric boiler assist is anticipated to be 40% more efficient than a baseline elementary school system. Student- and community-owned garden beds within the playground support a programmatic partnership between Wilkes and a nearby working farm. Interior spaces benefit from non-toxic finish materials, operable windows, natural cooling, and radiant floors that increase thermal comfort in the zone where students sit and play.
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