Using their award-winning campus master plan as a guide, the new international school in Baton Rouge, LA designed by Trahan Architects has just entered into the schematic design phase. The facility will be comprised of a gymnasium, stage, classrooms and an administrative suite. After interviewing Trey Trahan and being introduced to several of his projects, it is evident that the firm’s emphasis on understanding the context, in terms of both built form and culture, continually provides the backbone for their design process.
Trahan has an almost spiritual philosophy of how buildings can and should affect people. Encouraging interaction between all types of people, the school responds to the innovative pedagogy of the international school. The design also incorporates a network of pedestrian thoroughfare with a public promenade, which begins with an elevated boardwalk of wooden slats crossing a shallow streambed at the building’s eastern edge.
The boardwalk expands to an elevated pavilion that is continually activated throughout the day by campus activity: congregating parents waiting for their children in the morning and afternoons, outdoor instructional space during the day, and expansion of the adjacent gymnasium for performance and events in the evening. Ultimately, this glowing volume will become the central figure in an emerging campus.