Jestico + Whiles completes sustainable school doubling as hurricane shelter

Winning a competition launched by the Cayman Islands Government, London and Prague-based practice Jestico + Whiles has unveiled its future-forward design for John Gray High School in the region’s capital, George Town. The architecture and interior design firm restored and retrofitted four abandoned, partially completed buildings, the development of which began in the early 2000s yet was stalled due to the financial crisis. Connecting these structures into one cohesive concept, Jestico + Whiles has created a sustainable, collaborative educational facility tailored to the Cayman Islands’ tropical climate – so much so, in fact, that the secondary school also doubles as a hurricane shelter and emergency refuge point for the entire local community.

The interconnected buildings – which stood vacant since 2016 – now form a bright, vibrant campus centred around a domed, timber-lined library. Suspended above a shared, open-plan canteen, this focal point is where different teaching departments (a total of 1,050 students and 115 staff) come together during lessons, break times and school events, while staff offices are distributed throughout each wing to enable passive supervision for better student safeguarding. A simple layout was chosen to encourage easier wayfinding and make the transition of students between classrooms more efficient, with today’s increasingly flexible teaching and learning styles also being considered through the introduction of more breakout areas and smaller group rooms.

When drafting an initial design concept, the studio was intent on creating a space that genuinely served the needs of the George Town community. For this bespoke approach, they consulted extensively with the school through workshops with students, staff and parents, making use of visual aids including scale models and even virtual reality (VR). Alongside a student vote, follow-on college workshops were also held with the student council when drawing up key communal areas, while staff workshops focused on what makes a truly successful teaching facility.

As a tropical island state, a bespoke solar control façade was introduced to maximise daylight yet eliminate solar gain and glare, while standard on-site solar generation was installed to harness the abundant renewable energy available. In a further effort to prioritise student and staff wellbeing, each building is flooded with natural light through the addition of roof lights and features plenty of verdant indoor planting dotted throughout. This biophilic touch continues outside, where soft landscaping incorporating indigenous plants encourages the use of shared courtyards during break times.

Used frequently for celebrations and sporting events since its official opening, John Gray High School has proved immensely popular among students, parents and teachers alike, and is the first of four schools Jestico + Whiles is set to design for the Cayman Islands Government in an ongoing collaboration.