The school?s heating plant is fuelled with locally made wood chips, and the associated silo and chimney are prominently displayed in the school?s massing.
PROJECT Marine Drive Academy, Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia
ARCHITECT FBM
PHOTOS Julian Parkinson
In general, articles about new school designs concentrate on their aesthetic merits alone. A friend calls this ?ogling the architecture.? But if form does, indeed, follow function, an educational building should manifest its end use: to be a well-designed place that enhances teaching and learning. The Marine Drive Academy, designed by Susan Fitzgerald of Halifax-based firm FBM, achieves both goals effortlessly. In this case, the designer and the school earn a solid ?A? grade.
The town of Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia, is at the eastern extreme of Halifax Regional Municipality, about an hour-and-a-half drive from the city. The 800-person town is snuggled into the rugged Atlantic coastline and enclosed by dense forests. About 30 separate communities send children to Marine Drive Academy?some with bus rides up to an hour long?and 18 percent of its 275 students have Mi?kmaw roots. The school is also a regional resource. Once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, community groups will have access to the field, gymnasium, shop, drama, nutrition, textile and music facilities. In a village, the school is, as one teacher put it, ?a common thread. Everyone has a connection to the school, which brings people together.? Fitzgerald attributes the ...