Prestigious British School In Abu Dhabi Set Within A Village Green On Sadiyaat Island

Cranleigh Abu Dhabi is a private school development for Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), Abu Dhabi, located on Saadiyat Island and operated by Cranleigh - an historic private boarding school located in Surrey, UK.

- Godwin Austen Johnson

The design of the project was done in close association with TDIC and Cranleigh to ensure that the campus embodied the spirit, energy and quality of the existing school and campus in its setting on Saadiyat Island.

The overall school campus is made up of nine educational building elements that sit around a village green. The intention of the project was to create an integrated school campus to serve students from FS1 (4 years old) to Year 13 (18 year olds) which required the design of two main buildings with shared facilities.

The Junior School occupies the eastern-most boundary of the site and sits as a stand-alone element in the school campus concept but forming one side of the village green. The Senior School occupies the largest development footprint of the site providing over 11000m2 of net accommodation across three storeys.

Within the Senior School the auditorium is the main building element – a metal clad jewel which is highly visible as a source of orientation and inspiration. The brass panels are perforated – the perforations being formed from apertures whose size and scale are taken directly from the common English brick.

The main teaching blocks are reached via the atrium space. Each department benefits from having its own front door providing the opportunity for a unique and individual visual identity for each and also to facilitate a clear way finding strategy around the school.

The art and technology building was specifically designed to cater for all the needs of the arts on the upper levels with the design and technology department located on the ground floor.

On the south side of the village green it was decided that the dining hall and science building would be set back a little to provide a generous external space for both the senior and junior schools to use. Also flanking the site to the south, the sports building presents a grand backdrop to the central sports field.