A Cayman Island government international design competition sought a new vision for a school campus – the winning scheme resolved several challenges…
Project Info
Client: Cayman Islands government
Architect and interior: designer Jestico + Whiles
Executive architect: Chalmers Gibbs
Size: 15,322m2
Completion: January 2024
Words by Emily Martin
mages by Robin Hill
JESTICO + WHILES has completed the John Gray High School, located in George Town in the Cayman Islands. It is the first of four schools Jestico + Whiles is designing for its client, the Cayman Islands government, with the practice tasked with bringing together a new-build design with existing buildings to create an innovative and collaborative space for the school’s 1,288 students and 163 staff.
The practice’s design scheme for the school showcases its winning entry to a Cayman Island government international design competition, which sought a new vision for the school campus. The site formerly hosted four structures, which were originally designed in the early 2000s based on the ‘schools within schools’ academy model. However, worked stopped, with the building remaining unfinished and vacant since 2012. Jestico + Whiles’s design sought to unite the pre-existing, part-completed buildings, creating a cohesive school that allows the students to flourish.
‘This unique project presented a number of challenges,’ explains Ben Marston, director, Jestico + Whiles. ‘After a decade, with part-constructed buildings visibly degrading on site, there was natural scepticism in the community as to whether the project would ever be completed. There was also cynicism about whether the school community would be listened to in the process. Teachers, in particular, felt that previous education initiatives that resulted in the earlier design had been done to the community rather than with them. The government brief for a single building required the abandoned part-built structures, designed to a fundamentally different concept, to be integrated. And there was also the challenge of the island context, particularly in terms of construction logistics, climate resilience, and the hazards posed by both hurricanes and earthquakes.’
While repurposing the part-completed buildings was an aspiration, the practice’s extensive consultation with the whole school community, including students, parents of students, staff, and government and education authorities underpin the school’s design. The result is a building that is a flexible hub for staff, students and the community, which John Gray High School now sits at the heart of. Before its official opening, the school was already being used for events, celebrations and sporting occasions. A single entrance provides access directly into the building’s ‘heart’ at the joining point of each of the wings. Soft landscaping and the external spaces that surround the classrooms are an essential part of the building’s success – with courtyards providing social gathering spaces and shading structures to create enjoyable rest spaces for students and staff alike.
Marston says: ‘We undertook extensive consultation with the school community to ensure the new design embodies their ambitions. We held workshops with students, staff and parents using a variety of tools to get their input in effectively co-designing the new school. The new building integrates seamlessly with the refurbished abandoned structures into a cohesive whole. It incorporates facilities not available anywhere else in the country with a blend of traditional and flexible learning spaces for breakout and independent learning. The flow of the new building, the interconnectivity and the sense of community are the most pleasing aspects of the design. It has transformed educational opportunities for the young people of Grand Cayman.’
The building’s ‘heart’ is a domed, timberlined library suspended above an open-plan canteen. It will act as a gathering place for the school’s different departments, during break times but also throughout the day. The northern wing contains general teaching space for English, humanities, Spanish and business departments, while the southern wing contains maths, science, design and technology, and the western wing serves the visual arts and performing arts departments. With flexible teaching and learning in mind, each of the three wings features a combination of generous breakout areas and small group rooms.
Staff offices within the building have been distributed to create good sightlines and passive supervision, creating an efficient new school layout that enhances the safeguarding of students while also encouraging positive student behaviour. The quality of design and attention to detail is designed to create an uplifting environment for the pupils – in contrast to the standard state school offer in a region where the majority of pupils attend private school.
The curved form of the new building element is the overarching design driver stitching together the four existing structures and conveying some of the same gestural language as the swooping roof forms of the existing buildings. The horizontality of the façade is broken by a regular staccato rhythm of vertical louvres, which also serve to control solar gain and glare throughout the day. The scheme also incorporates rainwater collection and on-site solar generation, while the extensive landscaping includes indigenous planting, which substantially reduces the need for irrigation.
‘It has been hugely rewarding to continue to hone our approach to designing education projects internationally, tapping into the specific needs and priorities of the John Gray school community,’ comments Marston. ‘The opportunity to creatively reimagine the existing assets into one unified space that works for everyone led us to the consultative approach. We look forward to seeing our other schools’ projects with the Cayman Islands government develop over the next few years.’
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Publish date : 2024-12-12 02:22:00
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