The Baton Rouge International School concept is a multi-use educational facility containing a gymnasium, permanent stage, eight classrooms and an administrative suite. Situated on an 18-acre site, the building anchors a new campus design and master plan integrating fragments of an incongruous suburban water management strategy into a holistic expression of the site’s hydrological structure. The new building creates a “front door” to the school’s campus, framing a major pedestrian thoroughfare, and providing a flexible framework of spaces for a growing institution.

A series of translucent stacked frames create large, open spans ideal for flexible configuration, transforming the building into an ephemeral collection of “zones.” Flexible systems will allow the school to reorganize the building at any time, creating spaces currently outside the school’s means, including a 750 person theater, a 2,500 sf art gallery, a generous public foyer and several 900 sf art rooms. As the campus continues to evolve, so too will this first building.

The campus incorporates a network of pedestrian thoroughfares with a public promenade, which begin with an elevated boardwalk of wooden slats crossing a shallow stream bed at the building’s eastern edge. The boardwalk expands to an elevated pavilion that is continually activated throughout the day by campus activity. Ultimately, this glowing volume will become the central figure in an emerging campus.