Fabulous School Fitout

XCL World Academy (XWA) is a lovely close-knit community of international students and their families in Singapore. With a vision to encourage children to aspire, act and grow into their full potential, they wanted to create an inspiring learning environment. Arete Culture were brought on board to design and style a warm, energetic space. Mission accomplished!

- Georgina Hockley

Caroline Chin Geyler, Founder of Arete Culture, on being commissioned to carry out the work

" We were excited but apprehensive because we'd never designed and styled a school before. Since we’d worked with the clients in a personal capacity prior to this project, we knew expectations were high and didn’t want to disappoint! Personally, though, this job was so gratifying come from a small town in Malaysia and knew from an early age the importance of education. love that we were able to work with XWA on creating an environment that is not only conducive for learning, but also welcoming and reflective of the community they are building."

Aword from XCL World Academy

"We needed a design firm that could not only think outside of the box, but also create spaces that are inspiring for students and families. Having worked previously with Arete Culture and seen their capabilities first-hand, they were really the only firm we thought capable of delivering on our expectations."

OVERVIEW

The team from Arete Culture talk us through the project

Being given such a large, blank, corporate canvas to transform was an exciting prospect. XWA was already a fully functioning school; the brief was to enhance the current learning environment for students and to make the campus more inviting to parents. In particular, the client wanted families to feel warmly welcomed and truly at home on campus to really feel part of the close school community.

Another area of focus was to uplift and soften student areas such as the interior space in Early Years and the play areas. The vision was to make these learning spaces simultaneously warm and inspiring to align with the inquiry-based pedagogy of the school.

Design process and challenges