Left The building’s ‘heart’ is a domed, timber-lined library suspended above an open-plan canteen
035 031
PROJECT 1
John Gray High School, Cayman Islands
A Cayman Island
government international design competition sought a new vision for a school campus – the winning scheme resolved several challenges…
WORDS BY EMILY MARTIN
IMAGES 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
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157
