Project Data:

Completion Date:     8/16/2027

Square Footage:      27000

Building Use:           High School Shared Classroom & Support Spaces

Project Description:

The Cajon High School Revitalization project, located within the San Bernardino Unified School District, seeks to create an environmentally conscious learning space that expresses the principles of equity, tolerance, and openness. The inspiration for the design stems from the need to provide students and teachers with a venue to tackle global and regional climate and socioeconomic problems through collaborative and inclusive educational spaces. Traditional classroom layouts their adjacencies often lack the flexibility and transparency needed to foster robust collaboration between programs and curricula. This project envisions a democratic, co-learning model that encourages cross-disciplinary interactions and innovative teaching methods, supported by advanced technologies.

The existing campus consists of two dense single story classroom blocks,100 classrooms total, many without access to natural light. The client and design team challenged themselves to search out a ‘permanently flexible’ addition to their campus physically between the buildings.

By creating a nomadic learning environment, the project aims to reshape how students and educators interact and learn. This programmatic model encourages real-time human interaction and connection, essential for developing social skills and fostering innovation. The focus on cross-disciplinary learning and environmental stewardship prepares students to address future real-world challenges.

The design includes various pavilions, each equipped with educational tools such as full surround projection, circular writing surfaces, and movable partitions. These pavilions come in different sizes to accommodate a range of educational activities, from single-class sessions to large group collaborations and special events. For instance, the 1,200 sq. ft. Small Pavilions are versatile for single-class or small group use, while the 3,600 sq. ft. Extra Large Pavilion can host multiple classes or large-scale activities. The 1,800 sq. ft. Medium Pavilion focuses on digitally and autonomously distributed resources, reflecting a modern approach to accessing information.

This novel educational open-source campus aims to shift the paradigm of how learning environments are planned and maintained. The design promotes low-tech, efficient solutions that reduce energy consumption and maintenance demands. The project targets LEED Platinum and WELL certifications and net-zero carbon, energy, water, and waste.

Environmental consciousness is a core principle, with passive heating and cooling systems integrated into the building design. The pavilions utilize the earth's thermal mass for temperature regulation, reducing reliance on traditional HVAC systems. Strategic site shading, the use of bio-based materials and CLT assembly systems, and a focus on natural light and ventilation further enhance sustainability. The landscape design features drought-tolerant native plants, rainwater harvesting systems, and permeable surfaces to manage water use effectively. The presence of a meadow with native plants serves as a living laboratory for students, promoting conservation and respect for nature. This approach fosters a sense of pride and ownership among students and the community.
Overall, the Cajon High School Revitalization represents a significant shift in educational facility design. It serves as a model for future developments, demonstrating how educational spaces can be designed to inspire and support meaningful change in an increasingly complex world.

Design for Integration, Design for Equitable Communities, Design for Ecosystems, Design for Water , Design for Economy, Design for Energy, Design for Well-being, Design for Resources, Design for Change, Design for Discovery 

1. Design for Integration

The project has the ability to break ground in so many different ways, yet our core goal has remained to give students, teachers, staff, and the community a completely open-ended and neutral laboratory for learning. Providing space with no preconceptions - a vessel for knowledge, and an educational place like no other.

Circular Ecology - The carbon footprint, passively heated and cooled spaces, restorative landscape, and human health and wellness play an important role in seeing this project as a circular ecology. Cajon High School is a living organism of human interaction, nature, and the built environment symbiotically coexisting. The project creates an environment where these connections are strikingly apparent.

It began with the idea of creating learning spaces made available to every single teacher and student on campus. The notion of adding 12 classrooms, no matter how flexible and varied in scale, created a sense of inequity toward the existing traditional classrooms. We asked ourselves, what if we allowed a democratically driven co-learning model to drive collaboration and new learning interactions on campus. Can we give teachers the chance to break out, try new teaching venues, enliven and craft their curricula around openness, supported by technologies that enrich learning.

2. Design for Equitable Communities

The establishment of an onsite meadow preservation committee will consist of district leaders, horticultural experts, and biologists to select, cultivate, and irrigate for a minimum of two years to ensure the landscape is well-established and sustained. Further collaboration with the University of California Riverside, a close neighbor, is also being discussed. The meadow aims to become a source of pride and research for students and the community.

Community involvement comes in many forms. Providing correctly sized spaces for larger congregations, such as the centrally located ‘Plateau of Productivity’, activates student interaction and school spirit type events, such as pep rallies, as well as community and district groups utilizing the campus outside school hours. Smaller, more intimate clearings harken to a simpler time and slower pace more focused on the present. The campfire effect.

3. Design for Ecosystems

Native Plants + Restorative Landscapes - Why did we incorporate a meadow? Because we wanted to start the discussion about the role of conservation, respect and restoration of the natural world in high school curricula. The proposal features mainly California-native plants that require little water or maintenance. The landscape design includes several additional strategies, such as rainwater storage in an underground cistern, vegetated roofs at the Administration, and native habitat establishment throughout the campus.

School spirit can also come in the form of the conservation and stewardship of the land. The design aims to Evoke pride of place and ownership of your school, where respect for the environment takes center stage.

4. Design for Water

Water Conservation - Efficient use of water in Southern California, where this project is set is crucial, and the project's goal is to provide a prototype for water conservation, balancing water demand and water resources. Recognizing waters increased scarcity, we propose to utilize drought-tolerant native plants and a series of techniques - including a specially designed meadow retention and filtration system using bioswales, to treat rainwater on-site and limit the amount of excess water going into the storm drain system. Rainwater is captured from the roofs and stored in an underground tank for irrigation. Additional water for irrigation comes from blending tanks where a balanced mixture of potable and reclaimed water is maintained to best meet the watering needs of the native vegetation. The use of permeable paving stones and decomposed granite walkways allow for excess water to percolate into the soil. Reclaimed water, in conjunction with a local Water District, is used to flush toilets and for site irrigation.

5. Design for Economy

Each pavilion utilizes the ancient structural principle of arch geometry, as well as folded origami like planes to create its efficient yet expansive form. The application of responsibly harvested Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified fabricated Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels and precise joinery via the CNC manufacturing process produces a lightweight and extremely rigid shell structure with minimal surface, saving time and overall embodied energy impact. Panels will be fabricated and cut in the factory, shipped to the site and assembled; a process ensuring high quality and optimization. We find comfort in utilizing a material that sequesters carbon and is a renewable resource. It is the only truly sustainable material because it regrows itself.

Augmenting thermal material characteristics of the structural CLT skin system also plays a large part in the efficiency of the design. Further, the heights of the north facades maximize the amount of outdoor shaded area, activating a multitude of learning areas and encouraging outdoor activity. Glazing is utilized only on the north face, and is insulated, where it is most effective to provide ample natural indirect light and mountain views whilst minimizing heat gain.

These buildings and performance goals, which could initially be perceived as unconventional, are inextricably linked to the district facilities and maintenance plan. Our objective is to provide low-tech, efficient solutions that reduce the scale, demand, and wear on the campus facility. It is important to understand the proposed building systems are all weighed against realistic payback periods and have long-term operational life-cycle value.

6. Design for Energy

Net-Zero Energy - Early visioning discussions revealed the existing solar array system fulfills approximately 80% of the site's power requirements. Replacing the Administration and Library with buildings pulling dramatically lower energy loads, even with the additional co-learning pavilions it is anticipated the existing solar array system capacity will accommodate the new development. Additional arrays, if needed for future development, are to remain within the parking areas.

No gas! All electric! All renewable! - The campus existing hot and chilled water system, and the possibility of tying this new development to that system, carries some upfront cost benefits, although the long-term reliance on natural gas makes this a less favorable option due to reliance on non-renewable resources. The priority of reducing energy loads through passive low-tech strategies would require a supplemental HVAC system sized to these minimal loads, such as the proposed ground source heat pump. This system runs on electrical, renewable resources, tying into the project’s idea of Circular Ecology. Other opportunities being explored for renewable resources carrying long-term minimization of environmental impact include fuel cell technology.

7. Design for Well-being

Outdoor Activity, Reducing Heat Island + Increasing Shadow - Every pavilion, no matter the size, is paired with an equal or larger square footage of outdoor learning and activity space. Away from the proximity of the pavilions are additional larger open and landscape shaded multi-use areas, allowing for substantial expansion of learning possibilities.

In addition to the Pavilion's passive air conditioning system, the climate is controlled using strategic site shading and a thermal mass system. All sunny south facades are retained up to 6 feet above the finish floor to utilize the thermal mass of the earth to cool the occupied spaces and provide a more consistent interior comfortable temperature. The pavilions are pitched upwards toward the north for a variety of reasons. The shape of the form helps drive air upward toward the north facade, where controlled operable windows incorporate the venturi effect, allowing convection to drive the passive system.

8. Design for Resources

Material selection began with the primary structural basis of design, and multiple systems were explored and tested against carbon emissions analysis. Ultimately the team developed a wood timber approach, utilizing (CLT) Cross Laminated Timber paneling and minimal surface folded shell structures. Connectivity of the panels implements a kit-of-parts hierarchy of detailing, allowing the structures to be dismantled in the future with little waste. With the integral minimal surface structural/skin monocoque strategy, and the expression of exposed integral raw materials, maintenance will be reduced throughout its operational life cycle. The project, as an offset, will define an area on campus for growing in-situ sustainably harvested building material for future expansion. The project strives for zero-carbon, energy, water, and waste.

9. Design for Change

Urban development and harmful agricultural practices continue to hinder soil’s ability to sequester from the atmosphere and hold carbon, especially in southern and central California. The project’s bio-meadow, deemed the ‘Slope of Enlightenment’, will serve as an outdoor laboratory and physical manifestation for healthy, carbon-rich soil, and support the ongoing effort for long-term resiliency.

10. Design for Discovery

A Nomadic Model - To unearth the core of what our future world-changers need, we must be willing to create larger scale real-time human interaction through shifts in the social and physical distribution of knowledge. Many schools attempt to create new learning space by injecting ‘flexible learning areas’ into their campuses, yet do not provide them at a scale in which large portions of the population can participate.

Digital learning space attempts to span distances yet lacks true connection, a crucial part of the development of the social child. A nomadic class focuses on forging new experiences and connections through unexpected encounters and looseness reflecting real-life interaction. Whether this nomadic educational delivery is phased in slowly or unveiled at full capacity, this model will have profound effects.
By definition, a nomad must work together to survive. What else can we as a team imagine within this nomadic mindset?

The client and design team are very interested in learning from the students growing up in this nomadic learning environment, and how it will shape a student’s and educator’s contribution to the world and affect lives positively and holistically and looks to set up a robust post-occupancy program with stakeholders and users.

Completion Date:     8/16/2027

Square Footage:      27000

Building Use:           High School Shared Classroom & Support Spaces

Location:                 San Bernardino, CA

PJHM Architects

San Bernardino Unified School District