With sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu High School sits on a hillside ¼ mile from Zuma Beach and the Pacific Coast Highway. The school’s new 38,000 sq ft classroom, library, and administration building will serve as an entry gateway to the campus. The Malibu community’s heightened awareness of the fragility of their coastal habitat was a guiding factor in creating a new facility that would be both a sustainable laboratory and a teaching tool for students.

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Conceived as a type of inhabited landscape, the new building echoes and mirrors the contours of the native hillside. Planted green roofs provide outdoor learning spaces while improving building performance and managing storm runoff. Skylights and floor-to-ceiling glazing provide an abundance of natural daylight and minimize energy consumption. Solar fins made from recycled aluminum panels shield the building from the sun along the building’s southwest side, where heat gain and glare are main concerns. With radiant heating and natural ventilation, combined with wind turbines, cool roofs, and cisterns, the building is targeting the highest level of sustainable design.