The Arcadia High School, designed by Godwin Austen Johnson (GAJ), is the first school in the Middle East to be awarded the LEED V4 (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certification.

It was awarded 62 points by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) making it the fourth highest ranking school outside of the USA.

Completed in 2020, The Arcadia High School, located in Dubai’s Jumeirah Village Circle, covers a total teaching space of 7500sqm including classrooms, shared learning and labs. The ancillary facilities which includes the library, music and dance rooms cover an area of 1500sqm.

Drawing inspiration from Arcadia School, the primary school completed by GAJ in 2016, the secondary school’s reception is bright and airy opening out into a large casual seating zone with a unique 12 metre high indoor climbing wall feature. The inclusion of the wall was designed to reinforce the school’s ethos of transparency and its desire to ensure students play a highly visible and interactive role in their education.

“The Arcadia High School is a prime example of sustainable design and construction and we are thrilled the project has been awarded LEED Gold certification,” said Jason Burnside, partner at Godwin Austen Johnson. “Throughout the project our aim was to put in place a whole raft of sustainable measures including a thermally insulated building envelope, LED lighting with daylight/motion sensor controls and a high performance water cooled oil-free magnetic bearings chillers.”