South of Moscow in the slope ice age landscape, atelier PRO architects designed a new boarding house for the International School Letovo. When the Soviet Union fell apart more than 25 years ago, education more or less remained in the old system. That was reason to look for a radical change for innovative education. This initiative came from entrepreneur and benefactor Vadim Moshkovich. His idea was to set up a school for talented children from all over Russia. Every child should have access to the very best education, regardless of the financial means of the parents. A group of passionate people from the world of education conducted research in ambitious educational programs that help young people in the personal development of 21st century skills.
Campus Letovo School Moscow
And so in 2018 the 20 hectare high end school campus Letovo school, also designed by atelier PRO, in the new district of Moscow, Sosenskoye was created. The school campus has a variety of facilities for education, housing, sports and recreation. The inauguration proceeded in stages and by now there are a thousand students. The great demand for innovative education was evident as shown by the great number of applications. This exceeded expectations and demanded more housing capacity. At this International School many students are housed internally because they come from far. A new residential building for students had to be added.
Residential building
The new boarding-house is a hub for 327 children aged 15 to 18 years. The design is attuned to the wishes of young people who are developing towards adulthood. The boarding-houses of Letovo have standard rooms with four children. However, in the age of senior pupils there is a greater need for privacy and the rooms are for one person or two persons. The entire residential building is more spacious. Besides more privacy there is also the hub where the students can meet each other. In addition, there are apartments on each floor where the administrators and their families live.
The hub is centrally located on the ground floor and 1st floor. This is the place where students meet, lounge and relax. It is the students' living room with linked communal areas. There are also some office spaces for the administration of the boarding house, consulting rooms for psychological guidance and monitoring by mentors. At the hub in a large kitchen and dining room children learn to cook and clean. There will also be facilities where they can wash their own clothes. The targetgroup children here actually learn how to prepare for their next step towards independent living.
Curved building mass in the sloping landscape
The residential building is nestled in an hilly landscape that slopes down from the motorway to the river with bordering forest. The purpose of the S-shape is an optimised integration of the terraced building mass in the 'village scale' of the campus. The volume of the residential building follows the contours of the landscape. The building layout offers the most favourable light from the sun in the rooms, as is important for buildings for children in Russia. The curved S-shape of the building has an overhang facing the highway on the norther side. This is resembling a snake with a lifted head. The tail gradually moves down in the direction of the forest to a height level that conforms with the other dorms on the campus. The stepwise construction of this design ensures maximum space and integration into the waved landscape. The orientation provides a nice open view on both sides of the building. Building shape and orientation are also favourable considering possible future developments.