Escuela 42 is a private, non-profit programming school, created and financed by the French expert Xavier Niel, founder of the Telecommunications company Illiad. The training is inspired by new modern ways of teaching that include peer-to-peer pedagogy and project-based learning, teacherless and bookless, in which students have to achieve different goals by themselves. This school has made it to the Top 10 of World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI) ranking for innovative universities with real impact.
This unique concept has landed in Spain thanks to Fundación Telefónica. In this context, AECOM was commissioned to develop the new image of this Escuela 42 in Spain fitting a very special program that would encourage collaboration between students and meet the needs of a 24-hour access space.
After this first exercise, our interior design team was also commissioned to develop the projects for this institution in Madrid, Malaga, Bilbao and Barcelona. In the latter, the client has commissioned AECOM to develop the design and build services for Escuela 42 Barcelona: 1,600 square meters on the ground floor of an existing office building located in the urban area of the city.
The space has two classrooms called Cluster which are framed by a 42 meter-long wooden structure that can accommodate up to 200 students. It also has a resting area, canteen, staff area, mobile stage and different collaboration areas. All the spaces have been designed to foster the creativity needed to be at the cutting edge of technology.
The design of this disruptive and innovative concept has been made possible by AECOM, offering spaces that help students to develop their analytic skills but also to promote creativity, collaboration and innovation.