TYPE: School
LOCATION: Austin, TX
CLIENT: University of Texas at Austin
TEAM: Michael Chaveriat + Phil Sima
LOCATION: Austin, TX
CLIENT: University of Texas at Austin
TEAM: Michael Chaveriat + Phil Sima
The Ace Academy is a school for gifted children in Austin, TX. Class levels are based on comprehension, not age, and students are encouraged to collaborate and learn from each other. This progressive approach demands a new way of thinking about spaces for learning.
The school sits on a sloping city block at the border of the Judges Hill neighborhood and downtown Austin. This is a area of the city where dense residential neighborhoods transition to a more urban scale. The design addresses these conditions by providing an urban-scaled buffer on the south edge of the site while the north-west corner of the school grows out of the adjacent park and wraps the site, embracing a central courtyard space.
In addition to providing a focused and contained learning environment, the school attempts to engage the surrounding city, neighborhood, and site. The landscape is pulled up at the street level to reveal a public cafe and auditorium space, where the community may interface with the school and vice versa.
With flexible teaching spaces, learning can happen anywhere (be it the library stairs, a common space, or outside on the roof garden) and students are engaged even outside of the classroom.
The school sits on a sloping city block at the border of the Judges Hill neighborhood and downtown Austin. This is a area of the city where dense residential neighborhoods transition to a more urban scale. The design addresses these conditions by providing an urban-scaled buffer on the south edge of the site while the north-west corner of the school grows out of the adjacent park and wraps the site, embracing a central courtyard space.
In addition to providing a focused and contained learning environment, the school attempts to engage the surrounding city, neighborhood, and site. The landscape is pulled up at the street level to reveal a public cafe and auditorium space, where the community may interface with the school and vice versa.
With flexible teaching spaces, learning can happen anywhere (be it the library stairs, a common space, or outside on the roof garden) and students are engaged even outside of the classroom.
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