Highline High School in Burien, Wash., has been shaped by three powerful concepts—community engagement, project-based learning, and contextual place-based design. The guiding principles include welcoming, student-centered, community-focused, and safe outdoor learning spaces. By placing the commons at the heart of the school, the design creates a central gathering place for student and community events. The layout is based on learning communities. General classrooms, seminar rooms, teacher planning areas, small classrooms, and science labs are clustered around a small learning commons. The commons feature timber framing with glue-laminated columns and beams, wood decking, and purlins for a biophilic approach that reduces embodied carbon.
Read more about Highline High School and view a photo gallery at SchoolDesigns.com.
