Laurene Powell Jobs and the XQ Institute are behind Bridgetown’s new Oceana Innovation Hub, the first of a three‑building mass‑timber campus now making waves across the Caribbean and around the world.
Designed by Michael Murphy, founder of AMMA, the cross‑laminated timber and glulam building uses a “pyramidal, or many‑angled, roof design, which helps in avoiding or mitigating significant wind… this is a building that breathes.”
Part of a design lineage rooted in Metabolist architecture, a movement that emerged in Japan in the 1960s, Murphy said the project is “a really exciting discovery… it allows for a multiplicity of spaces, from paired‑down working groups to large, presentation‑style dialogues.”
Wood Central understands that the Barbados school is the first completed example of a modular system that Powell Jobs has been developing with Spanish architects Débora Mesa and Antón García‑Abril of Ensamble Studio. Using Spanish timbers, modular schools are being constructed in a 16‑by‑60‑metre warehouse, where individual components are assembled.
The building’s form also draws inspiration from Barbados’s historic chattel house, a lightweight timber dwelling developed in the 19th century for emancipated workers. Like those early movable homes, the new school is designed to be easily assembled, relocated and adapted as community needs evolve.
It comes as Wood Central last month reported that the school, built mere metres from the sea on the sands of Carlisle Bay, was constructed by crews in just 10 months, a major milestone for Powell Jobs’s XQ Institute. Already, its success has seen the Barbados Ministry of Education explore if the design could be used as a proof‑of‑concept for some of its other schools across the island.
Inside, exposed mass‑timber beams frame open, flexible learning spaces that shift from small‑group work to large presentations. Pyramidal skylights pour natural light deep into the interior, while one classroom opens directly onto the beach for marine science and climate‑focused learning.
At the same time, louvred openings, deep overhangs, and a ventilated roof apex reinforce the passive‑cooling strategy, reducing reliance on mechanical systems during peak humidity and helping the building maintain comfort in extreme weather.
Please note: The Oceana Innovation Hub is the first step in a three‑campus system that XQ and the Barbados Government plan to roll out nationally and eventually globally. Other hurricane‑belt nations are already monitoring the project as they search for rapid, low‑carbon, climate‑resilient construction models.
