Aga Khan Academy, Bishkek

The Aga Khan Academy, Bishkek, part of an integrated network [JMC1] of schools located in Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Middle East offering girls and boys an international standard of education from pre-primary to upper secondary levels with a rigorous academic and leadership experience.

Bishkek is targeted as one of the first four complete Academies (in 4 different regions) serving as a test bed of the network of Academies. The first Academy opened in 2003 in Mombasa, Kenya and is the first school in Kenya authorised to offer all 3 IB programmes (PYP, MYP and IB diploma 

The project is progressing...

The market study was completed in September 2008, The Academies Unit and land planning teams have visited two sites and specific parcels of land have been identified and negotiation is underway to establish land ownership.

The initial site visits to the land review zone have provided an important and initial opportunity to

assess the zone in relation to site programming and planning needs. Among these needs to which the land must be evaluated to provide a positive response are:

• Long-Term Expansion

• Access and Accessibility

• Infrastructure Support

• Urban Context

Whilst the evaluation of academy site will include the assessment of the development programme and the ability of the site to physically accommodate the programme in practical terms, design criteria inevitably embrace issues that are more subjective in nature but have important impact to the evaluation process.

• Environment: or the ability of the academy and its surroundings to facilitate the creation of a living and learning environment. In this regards the emphasis is on the quality of the site and not just the adequacy of size.

• Identity: or the potential for the creation of a special “sense of place”. The physical complex of architecture and landscape that will embody an inspirational environment, tangible to the students, faculty and visitors, is in many ways also affected by the surrounding land forms and uses.

• Position: or clarity of location within the surrounding landscape or community.