A new idiom in School Design discards traditional floor planes, integrating Sustainable Design principles and green environment eco-practice.

Proposed for Cleveland Ohio's new Campus International School (CIS), this unique world of learning emerges from below street level, clad in triple-pane glass and solar panels. With an open-classroom plan situated on the continuous spiral of wedge shaped platforms,  traditional floor planes are eliminated, an outside-the-box experience to inspire learning and participation at all ages.  Each platform elevates one step around a central atrium, This ADA compliant spiral commences at street level, from which the Elementary School winds down 18ft (5.5m) to the Physical Education platform, and up 42ft (12.8m) from street level for the Middle and High Schools.  With an inviting arc of exterior steps, the CIS relates to the Cleveland State University Payne Avenue campus and to the Cleveland community via a bridge to the 18th Street arrival area.

A single universe of continuity and shared resources, collaboration between staff, teachers and the grades transpires naturally.  The classroom plan contains two and three-room clusters, some combining lecture space, lab and workrooms for maximum teaching integration and student involvement.  Clustering fosters class sharing of the common workroom and laboratory facilities located between lecture rooms.  Many classrooms feature stepped seating with adjustable desks.
The Elementary School (yellow) has its own street level entrance, protected outdoor Kindergarten play area, food service and sublevel field.  The Middle School spiral (blue) continues up from street level through Administration, food service for the rest of the school, Special Education and grade 6 through 8 classrooms.  All-school Special Subject classrooms and laboratories mark a transition to the High School (orange), followed by the grade 9 through 12 classrooms with music rooms conveniently adjacent to the all-school auditorium.  From this upper level, a ramp rises to the indoor Horticulture Sky Garden.  In addition to the continuous ADA ramp, elevators access the platforms at 18ft (5.5m) intervals and the Sky Garden.

The spiral platforms range in size from 1,100sf (102sm) to 1,900sf (177sf) net, not including the inner ADA circulation ramp, Physical Education sublevel, Atrium, Auditorium or Sky Garden.  Together they comprise 62 interior platforms encompassing 135,000sf (12,500sm).  The Middle/High School athletic field and track is located at street level.  Directly outside the Kindergarten classrooms and Administration offices is the Kindergarten play area with an Elementary School field nested in the sublevel below.

770 PV solar panels are placed to maximize year round electricity production providing a 90,000 kWh annual capacity, incorporating solar thermal tubes for hot water production.  The hemisphere employs triple-pane glass for insulation, tinted as position appropriate to harvest light without heat and glare.  Excavated landscape adjacent to the sublevel skin provides natural light for the lower spiral and Physical Education platform, an airy feeling of openness.  The 22ft (6.7m) high sublevel gymnasium, topped at the Middle School entrance level by the Atrium floor, is ringed with internal skylights for illumination from the glass dome through the Atrium.  Glass panels in key locations open for natural ventilation, allowing cool fresh air inflow from lower levels for circulation, venting through and out the dome.  Topped with an interior roof garden for K through 12 horticulture studies, it allows 12 months' access and external visibility to the entire community.

The Campus International School offers an innovative environment to inspire experiential observation, participation and learning, a visible icon for sustainable design and the international biosphere.