Dubai-based Arcadia High School, designed by Godwin Austen Johnson, is the first school in the Middle East to be awarded the LEED V4 (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certification.
It was awarded 62 points by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) making it the fourth highest ranking school outside of the USA.
Completed in 2020 The Arcadia High School, located in Dubai’s Jumeirah Village Circle, covers a total teaching space of 7500 sqm including classrooms, shared learning and labs. The ancillary facilities which includes the library, music and dance rooms cover an area of 1500 sqm.
Drawing inspiration from Arcadia School, the primary school completed by GAJ in 2016, the secondary school’s reception is bright and airy opening out into a large casual seating zone with a unique 12 metre high indoor climbing wall feature. The inclusion of the wall was designed to reinforce the school’s ethos of transparency and its desire to ensure students play a highly visible and interactive role in their education.
“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,” said Jason Burnside, partner, Godwin Austen Johnson. “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.”
LEED is a globally recognised symbol of excellence in green building. LEED certification ensures electricity cost savings, lower carbon emissions and healthier environments where people live, work, learn and play. In the United States alone, buildings account for almost 40 percent of national CO2 emissions, but LEED-certified buildings have 34 percent lower CO2 emissions, consume 25 percent less energy and 11 percent less water, and have diverted more than 80 million tons of waste from landfills.
LEED projects earn points by adhering to prerequisites and credits across nine measurements for building excellence from integrative design to human health to material use. The LEED rating systems work for all buildings at all phases of development and are meant to challenge project teams and inspire outside-the-box solutions.
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