The Ecole Halifax Peninsule, to be built to support the Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial, will serve grades pre-primary to 8. The project consists of the school and a community centre wing, for a school population of 700 students. Key design parameters are to maximize area for play on site and to establish a significant space for the Acadian community on the Halifax peninsula. This new school and community centre will be a place for enhanced education and celebrating culture in Halifax. It will be welcoming to students, staff and the community at large for generations to come.
The school features a collaboration hub connecting the main entry with the whole building, including the administration area, the cafetorium, the gymnasium, and the learning wing. This main entry area is also where the school connects to the community centre via a lockable vestibule. Given the importance of the community presence, the cafetorium is being enhanced to be a black box theatre which will be able to function independently but not preclude students from using the adjacent programs.
The second floor library overlooks the cafetorium and the south facing playspace and entry plaza. Blending out from the library breakout space is a multi-functional collaboration space acting as a balcony and sound booth for the black box theatre, overflow cafeteria space, or additional library workspace. The school also includes 32 classrooms, a production lab, a media/innovation lab, nutrition lab, textiles lab and a multipurpose science lab. The classrooms are laid out in groupings that open onto a shared collaboration space. The community centre houses a daycare with dedicated playspace, a multipurpose space, a conference room, radio booth, offices and a community kitchen.