Belen Consolidated School District

The new Belen Community Family School will create a long needed permanent home for students in the District’s home school program. With multiple sessions, the school will effectively be used in a full-time capacity. Students will be taught both in whole group instruction as well as in smaller break-out groups. Flexibility and transparency are two of the major criteria for the design of the facility. The design utilizes a courtyard layout, utilizing outdoor circulation space which can double as an outdoor learning environment in the favorable arid Belen climate. All of the learning environments can be opened up to the courtyard from anywhere in the school and provide for the ability of a small staff being able to observe most of the spaces in the school from their own area. The building is orientated to take advantage of solar orientation and shielding outdoor areas from westerly winter winds. The new Family School was designed to be unique and to the community and will work well within the context of the site and program.