Innovative, Bioclimatic, European School Complex | Yianna Bouyioukou

The proposal for the Innovative Bioclimatic European School Complex in Crete is based on two main design premises: an understanding of the program as a reflection on the nature of teaching and learning and an acknowledgment of the place, as a didactic reflection on how architecture can relate the human habitat, its activities and the physical and cultural environment where it is inserted. 

The challenge of designing an educational building that comprises three different levels of education is addressed by proposing a group of functionally different buildings (each with its own functional independence) with a formal and material unity.The three main programmatic areas are physically separated by courtyards and they take advantage of the topography in order to diminish the visual impact of the building by having the tallest building in the lowest part of the site and merge into the landscape letting the olive treed slopes interlock with the buildings. The use of open courtyards reinforce the interior activities. The presence of wooden columns lined verandas as buffer zones between the exterior and the interior establish a link with ancient of Minoan architecture, and stress the idea that teaching and learning happen everywhere and anytime, vertically but also horizontally, between mates.  

The dependence on mechanical systems is greatly reduced by the precise early architectural decisions that regulate the effects of the environment on the comfort and its energy demands. Rather than having sustainable add-ons, the complex benefits from a holistic approach to the topographic, cultural and bioclimatic conditions of its place.