The Best School for Architecture to Inspire Children in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 Revealed. Top Schools Award Winner. Official.
The Winner
The SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Awards for
The Best School for Architecture to Inspire Children in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024
is awarded to:
Arcadia School Dubai
Our view of Arcadia School Dubai
KHDA: Very Good with Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/arcadia-school
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/new-schools-in-uae/arcadia-preparatory-school-jumeirah-village-triangle/
To understand the architecture of The Arcadia School in Dubai, you have to begin from a surprising place: philanthropy. And it is a very good place to start a school because it means that you begin with heart, and no small amount of love. The Arcadia School is, in its foundations, not a school driven by accountancy and hedge funds, but, rather, one driven by family and wanting to give back to children and the UAE. It shares this ethical heart with very few schools in the UAE; and these schools which also include, for example, the Safa Schools, and the very first GEMS schools, will always be, for us, the true “Ivy League” schools of the Emirates. Built on love, delivered with love – children, families and teachers first.
It can happen at any part of our lives, but so often as we grow older. We realise like the brightest star in the darkest place what is really important in life – and it is certainly not material things, the latest fashion, or really anything to do with vanity. When you look around you understand, often painfully, that inequality and complacency are two of the most awful things in our world – and that Education is the most important tool we have to put the world right.
It is this that led the remarkable Mohan Valrani, Industrialist and Co-founder of the Al Shirawi Group. to begin the most important investment of his life in Education in Dubai. The passion to change the world here was immense. Mr Valrani called in the who’s who of every single industry that he needed to help him build schools that would define the very best education available to our children. And he started setting out his vision with two requirements: that The Arcadia School, and those that would follow, would make no compromise with ensuring children received the very best education possible; and, as importantly, that Teachers, the absolute centre of the universe, would be recognised and cherished.
Architecturally, this would be no “just throw up a box” affair. Mr Valrani went to the very best Architects in Education in the region: Johnson. Chairman. Godwin, Austen, Johnson. (GAJ). “Throw me everything you have” he instructed. “I do not want compromises.” The discussion is the stuff of legend – but the results, in the two Arcadia buildings which make up The Arcadia School, speak volumes. GAJ are responsible for many of the school buildings that have defined the landscape for Tier 1 architecture in Education as it has evolved over more than fifty years. Many will know them best for Dubai College, a building that stands today, as was intended, as a forceful statement on the power and wonder of Education and one designed, in part, to reflect the history of the great UK boarding schools who have been the educational homes of some of the most influential figures in history.
Mr Valrani’s impetus, architecturally, was perhaps more spiritual. It was always, for him, about light; about vanquishing the darkness of history and filling our futures with hope. His buildings were to be a physical reference to the power of light over the forces of darkness. GAJ were instructed to design buildings that allowed light to fill them from every possible angle; no easy task for even great architects – and a very expensive one. This was to be an architectural exercise in substance over form, of lived experience over surface statement.
“I want my schools to be transparent, there should be light from all sides, and this is the ethos we designed the school on,” Mr Valrani told us.
If architecturally the foundations of the school have been built on a belief in Education as the most powerful single tool for positively transforming our world, the importance of light, and ensuring that teachers are respected and looked after as the most profession in the world, the structures of the school equally demonstrate some extraordinary firsts.
Jason Burnside, Partner at GAJ, said:
“The desire of the client for the project was to have a more open-planned school and include breakout spaces and wider corridors. The project benefited from an aspiration to have a more open and transparent school, and this may actually become a model for other schools that have been traditionally more cellular.
“The Arcadia High School is a prime example of sustainable design and construction and we are thrilled the project has been awarded LEED Gold certification. Throughout the project our aim was to put in place a whole raft of sustainable measures including a thermally insulated building envelope, LED lighting with daylight/motion sensor controls and a high performance water cooled oil-free magnetic bearings chillers. The Arcadia School is a sustainability milestone in Education in the UAE.”
The technological investment continues today as ultraviolet technology continuously cleans the air molecules coming through the air conditioning systems in both its primary and secondary school campuses to ensure the safety of the Arcadia community.
As important as the technology innovation is, of course, it is invisible. The emotional investment in architecture is what you experience visiting the Arcadia School – and what brings the school its greatest contribution to what it holds dear – the happiness of its children and its teachers. There are too many features here to list – and any way, words cannot capture the impact as you visit these schools of the sheer beauty, warmth and attention to detail demonstrated in every single interior and exterior space. In the Preparatory” Building, play areas use desert themes with organic shapes and patterns flowing through from the exterior entry plaza and into the two main ground level courtyards; both courtyards contain play items orientated towards the British Curriculum with play spaces generally themed under science, construction, Mathematics and drama; the FS courtyard contains an interactive truly play to ignite the senses and intellect of younger children; and inspirational reading areas are everywhere, with linkages provided by floor and wall markings for numbers, measuring and counting. GAJ explained:
“It was designed in line with the client’s aspiration to create a school that provides a flexible, open-plan learning environment for pupils.
The design concept focused on creating centralised open zones for its main educational block with the age group classrooms wrapping around the central core of the building. The creation of two external full height courtyards allows natural light to permeate throughout the school as well as enabling visual links from the core of the building out to the periphery corners.
The interiors of the Arcadia Preparatory School are designed to reflect the high quality and progressive thinking of the education provided within its classrooms and shared facilities. The sculptural entrance hub is the centre of this community with the library, exhibition space and dining providing a large open plan area for flexible learning experiences and functions.
Clear lines of sight throughout the school combined with visual reference points, colour and finishes along the route enable ease of movement and wayfinding.
The practical aspects of durability, function and user flow were carefully considered as well as safety and sustainability. This determined the overall planning and the selection of finishes.”
The Top Schools Awards for Architecture to Inspire Children. Pictured: The Arcadia School Preparatory Master Plan by GAJ.
Architectural ambition in the render of the Preparatory façade…
Colour, Nature and Light blend seamlessly with focal point reading spaces for younger children…
The architectural Design for the Reception draws in light walls to cleverly shaped and faceted white reception structures to reflect light like a diamond…
Light dances over the staircases that create flow and warmth as a focus for both Arcadia school buildings
The roof space of the original Preparatory building provides for a pool and sports facilities – the architectural impetus to create a building that would provide a home for every possible need of each child.
Rooftop integration of sport at the Arcadia School Preparatory building designed to have everything for younger children
The stunning adjacent Arcadia School rooftop pool….
This is also the first school we have seen saw that used the V-shaped staircase as an assembly space. Beautiful FS classrooms all open to a courtyard. It’s a wonder…
The Secondary building takes this architectural focus on light a stage further:
The Masterplan technical drawing of The Arcadia School Secondary Building.
Windows and glass externally are designed in concert with interior space to send light “everywhere”
Architectural splice of showing part of the light dispersal calculations at the heart of the school’s design philosophy
Light bridges create travel between space that do not hinder light, ensuring that it is reflect into every corner
The entrance is a wall of light…
The Secondary building is a landmark in terms of sheer space – internal and external. Features abound, but stand-out are, arguably, the interior climbing wall to the third floor (designed for the adventurers); Food Tech and DT spaces; the multiple Science Labs (across Secondary and Sixth Form); an even bigger staircase used for Assemblies; flexible classrooms that can expand to double space (the Art spaces are particularly inspiring); and the top floor Sixth Form currently being designed and configured.
In summary, The Arcadia School Dubai deserves it place at the very pinnacle of achievement in UAE architecture in Education. Technologically pioneering, a benchmark for the creation of light in schools – and a school build ground up as an expression of hope and celebration of the force for good that is both Education and the Profession of Teaching, this is a school that architecturally moves the heart, and achieves its ambition to deliver the most outstanding possible education for children. Mr Valrani, GAJ Architects – and the teachers, leadership, students, parents and community that breathe life into its extraordinary and exceptional light filled spaces, should feel so proud.
Award Presentation
Best-Architecture-and-Design-Arcadia-School-Winner-Certificate-portrait
The Top Schools Award for Best School for Architecture to Inspire Children in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 will be presented to Arcadia School Dubai at a special Breakfast Celebration at The Emirates Golf Club on the morning of 16th November 2023. At the event the recipient of The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 for Outstanding Contribution to Education will be revealed.
Historic winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Education in the UAE Award include H.E. Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, recognised for his era defining leadership of Education in Dubai as a force for good; and the Varkey Family, for their instrumental role in shaping education in the UAE, and ensuring the life chances for generations of children, following the founding of GEMS Education in 1959.
Our Finalists.
Our extraordinary Finalists and those schools which have achieved outstandingly in so many ways for children in the Best Architecture category follow. Each of the following schools are recognised for their profound contribution to investment in child-centred inspired Architecture in UAE Education:
Citizens School Dubai
Architect: Godwin, Austen. Johnson (GAJ)
Web: https://citizens.me
KHDA: Awaiting first Inspection
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/citizens-school
Dubai College
Architect: Godwin, Austen. Johnson (GAJ)
Web: https://www.dubaicollege.org
KHDA: Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/dubai-college
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/secondary-schools/dubai-college-al-sufouh/
Horizon International School
Architect: Godwin, Austen. Johnson (GAJ)
Web: https://hisdubai.ae
KHDA: Good with Very Good and Outstanding Features
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/all-through/horizon-international-school-umm-al-sheif/
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/horizon-international-school
Safa Community School
Architect: In house: Louay Khatib and Sameer Merchant with EDI Architects
Web: https://www.safacommunityschool.com/
KHDA: Very Good with Predominant Outstanding Features
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/new-schools-in-uae/safa-community-school-dubai-al-barsha-south/
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/safa-community-school
The British School Al Khubairat
Architect: includes Hawkins/Brown and Dewan Architects
Web: https://www.britishschool.sch.ae
KHDA: Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/british-school-al-khubairat-abu-dhabi
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/curricula/a-levels/the-british-school-al-khubairat-al-mushrif/
A final note.
The Top Schools Awards takes over a year to produce. It engages with parents, students educators and educationalists over countless months, and the work invested in these Awards is the stuff of sleepless nights and deeply felt responsibility. We produce these Awards to celebrate our amazing schools, our magnificent teachers – who are the centre of the universe, our school leaders, whose lives will be judged by their impact on children, and the amazing students that they build a future for. These Awards are only about recognising this – in a world in which our schools and educators have far, far too little recognition. If on exploring these Awards you do one single thing, it should be to reach out to each and every one and thank them for all they do, each and every one of our schools, teachers and school leaders. You have absolutely no idea how much that would mean.
© SchoolsCompared.com. A WhichMedia Group publication. 2023 – 2024. All rights reserved.
Leave a Response