The new hub of student life for Britton Middle School is a two-story, all-electric café and media center with a mass timber roof, a floating study pod and an ambitious role in a growing downtown community.
On the edge of Morgan Hill’s downtown, Britton Middle School’s new all-electric student union is a transparent, two-story swirl of student life that plays many roles for the school and the growing Northern California community.
For Britton students, the facility’s cafeteria, kitchen, media library and study zones — indoor and outdoor — change the daily experience and add modern learning environments on a campus dating to the 1950s. After hours, the student union is available for community events and meetings, an important extension of the growing walkable downtown, a tree-lined mix of retail, offices and residential.
The design purposely pushes the new student union next to the sidewalk, connecting in alignment with other buildings in the revitalizing downtown. Landscape architects and civil engineers were involved to site the building as close to the street as possible. The street-front approach also freed space on the campus side of the building for covered outdoor learning and activity spaces.
The second floor, with spectacular views of El Toro Summit, the landmark local mountain, is home to the media center, study pod, reading nook and an outdoor covered patio. Open spaces can be easily reconfigured for study groups or one-on-one time. A study pod, inspired by a need for transparency from within while maintaining visual privacy from the café below, appears to float above the street-level café; at night, the lighting design makes the pod glow in the space, strengthening the visual connection with the street. On the campus side, a grand staircase connects the second floor with a courtyard plaza protected by the mass timber overhang.
Outside, the plaza expands the café’s flexibility by offering a variety of seating and gathering spaces where students can study, eat, socialize and see and be seen. Research into the specific needs and sensitivities of middle schoolers helped shape the environments, inside and out.