On the 22nd of last month, Stefan Schwarzkopf, Design Director at Inscape Publico, and I weaved between mountain tops, banked hard left, and landed at Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Greeted at the airport by our hosts for the week Jack Melvin and Bob Cantor, we climbed into a minivan and traveled northwest on highway CA5 through the Honduran Central Mountains to the garden city of Siguatepeque.
We were brought to Honduras by the Episcopal Church of Honduras and its bishop the Reverend Lloyd Emmanuel Allen to design a new school at St. John’s Parish in Siguatepeque. In a country where compulsory education ends at the 6th grade and only 51% of children registered complete primary school, the Episcopal Church of Honduras serves 1,650 students in 7 bi-lingual schools throughout the country. The church's mission is to prepare their students to engage the future of Honduras as intelligent, articulate, and compassionate people of faith that possess a global perspective and the skills necessary to make a positive impact on their world.
The design directive that was given to Inscape Publico by Bishop Allen is to create a master plan for a new school prototype, pre-K through high school, on a plot of land adjacent to the church and current school at St. John’s Parish. The master plan is now complete and we are currently developing the components of the master plan into the architecture that will house the children and young adults of Escuela San Juan. The school will be a prototype for 21st Century education in Honduras and will take advantage of the latest technologies and pedagogical approaches to education.
- Greg Kearley
To support this project, please visit www.crowdrise.com/stjohnsschoolhonduras.