Description

Fran Krsto Frankopan Primary School fits neatly into the urban fabric of its setting, a historic Croatian walled town. Following the existing contours of the site, the school is arranged along two adjacent linear circulation spaces, and the slope of the wider of the two traverses the ground plane via a series of low wide steps. Surfaced in timber, and in a soft yellow painted space, bathed in natural light, these steps become a natural sitting and gathering space for pupils, wide and broad enough to accommodate a school assembly, but also tranquil enough for cosy playtime chats. This is one of the simplest and most effective ways to make successful social space in a school.

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Originally published in: Prue Chiles (ed.), Leo Care, Howard Evans, Anna Holder, Claire Kemp, Building Schools: Key Issues for Contemporary Design, Birkhäuser, 2015.