OCSB - St Isabel Elementary School

Project Team :

Bryden Martel Architects - Architect of Record

Description :

This school is a single storey with five kindergarten classrooms, sixteen classrooms, two childcare rooms, a main office, learning commons, and double gym.

This school is one storey in height and is punctuated by a tower over the front entrance. The tower creates an incredible bright sun filled atrium as one enters the school. It also creates a street presence and is a beacon to the community. It also houses a flat screen display that can be used for communicating with the community. 

The architecture itself became a learning opportunity with structural elements exposed and finishes cut away to reveal what is behind them.  A window into the Boiler Room showcases colour-coded pipes, ducts, and equipment that are explained on an educational display on the wall outside the room.  

The school is brightly coloured, exuberant and playful. There are curved walls in the learning commons, floor patterns undulate down the corridors, and acoustic clouds mimic the floor patterns and frame the learning pods and niches throughout the school. The architecture is intended to inspire curiosity and learning.