The new facility for ACS Doha, which has been designed in a collaboration between Broadway Malyan’s Reading and Abu Dhabi studios, will have a capacity for 2,470 students and is set to open its doors in 2020.
The new site is 10 kilometres from the school’s existing site in Al Gharrafa and more than five times the size at 60,000sqm and will be served by a new metro stop that will allow it to serve a number of new and growing neighbourhoods in the city including the Pearl and Lusail.
The development is the latest Broadway Malyan project with ACS which include a range of development and masterplanning projects at their three main UK campuses but ACS Doha is their first international school.
Elsewhere in the region, Broadway Malyan recently designed two new international schools in Dubai – Jebel Ali School and the new Kent College School next to the world-famous Maydan race track.
Director Nick Davies, who leads the practice’s education team in the Middle East, said the latest project was a reflection the school’s success since it opened in 2011 as well as the currently favourable conditions for expansion.
He said: “Over the past decade there has been a steady stream of investment in the international schools sector, to serve both the significant ex-pat community as well as the local population and these have gone from strength to strength.
“Over the past decade there has been a steady stream of investment in the international schools sector”Nick Davies, Director, Broadway Malyan
“What we are now seeing through projects like ACS Doha and similar developments in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi that we are involved in is established schools taking advantage of current market conditions and land availability and creating a new generation of school campuses that reflect the very latest in pedagogical thinking.”
The new school, which is set to be built by Al Jaber Construction Group with Mace as development manager and AECOM as consulting engineer, is an important part of ACS’s ability to attract the best educational talent as well as reflecting Qatar’s wider growth according to Tim Cagney, chief executive of ACS International Schools.
He said: “We are honoured that this expansion resonates strongly with the human development goals of Qatar’s 2030 National Vision and our own goal is to make an ACS education available to more students around the world.
“After more than 50 years in education in the UK and Qatar, the new campus will enhance our strong international reputation, ensuring we continue to attract the very best teachers and educational leaders from around the world.”
