concordia is a community based planning and design team with a collective passion for the principles of concord. We implement our work through an integrative and participatory process that addresses physical, cultural, social, educational, organizational and economic assets and needs.
Tishomingo County Educational Complex
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HIGH SCHOOL AS COMMUNITY CENTER
Through broad community participation involving a steering committee of one hundred constituents, the needs of this poor rural Mississippi county were analyzed for the building of a new consolidated high school for 1000 students. As a result of community participation, the facility was designed to double as a high school and a community center.
The design locates the common facilities around an open, circular court for complete community access. Programmatic uses balance school and community: school auditorium as community theater, gymnasium as community fitness center, cafeteria as town meeting hall, media center and early learning and child care center, adjacent forest as environmental learning site, and so on. A necklace of citizen’s handprints was imbedded in the brickwork through a series of fund raising and community engagement activities. This project was designed in association with Johnson Bailey Architects.