RGLA: Renaissance Global Liberation Academy Campus
Houston, TX
Program Development, Architectural Design and Master Planning Services, Capital Campaign Materials, New Build
HQA worked with R.G.L.A. to develop both a program, master plan and architectural approach that reflect the school's unique values and innovative approach to education. HQA continues to assist the school with capital campaign materials and in their pursuit of a temporary campus for their debut year and permanent home where they can fully realize all of their goals.
Design Approach
The Architecture of R.G.L.A. serves both to promote the educational experience of the student and to build a profound relationship between them, the school and the surrounding community. Through specific design strategies, the architecture aims to create a flexible, holistic, student-empowering educational campus that is a second home to its diverse student body.
This is not a typical school - not in its architecture nor its program. For this reason, rather than divide the school by fields such as science, math, and language arts, the site's been arranged around four focal points: Explore, Experiment, Health and Community. Each of these points has been developed into its own building and surrounding outdoor space. Each building's architecture reflects its individual identity. Yet together, they work across the campus to create a cohesive, enriching and supportive environment for student-led learning.
The entire campus and each individual building is designed with at least one large shared space at its core, and a network of smaller, more intimate, related spaces surrounding and integrated into it. While the larger spaces allow students to collaborate and learn in large groups, a layer of smaller discussion nodes, alcoves and hidden nooks provide space for students to study, create, explore, decompress, read, nap or whatever they need at a given moment along their educational journey.
Further augmenting the school’s values is the architecture’s inclusion of the outdoor environment. As green design is paramount to any education, the school capitalizes on the exterior: discussion nodes, labs and shared spaces are arranged to be able to open up to and even expand into adjacent patios, fields and roof top gardens. Matching the variety of the school’s students, these outdoor spaces vary from a large field to the more intimate roof gardens, from places for physical activity, study and contemplation, to food production and animal habitats. The outdoors are brought into the interior as well through daylighting, operable windows and captured views. The buildings themselves reflect this heightened value of Nature through careful materials selection, site layout, orientation, and sustainable practices.