Qingyijiang Road Elementary School
This is a school about parallel and light.
The school spreads freely in the horizontal direction on the vast site, becoming a “mat-building”.
The two-storey teaching block consists of the “platform” (functional classrooms) on the first floor and the “huts” (standard classrooms) on the second floor.
The elevated platform provides more outdoor spaces, allowing the students to carry out outdoor activities during recess time more conveniently. The huts with various forms of roofs outline a fairy-tale view of the settlements. Internally, a soft and interesting classroom space is created through skylight. The design of the roof and light strategy is based on students’ age characteristics and learning styles of different grades. As such, students will have diverse spatial experiences of classrooms throughout the six years of study.
In the plan layout, 54 classes are divided into six grade groups, each one with a courtyard as its center for socializing and activities. Classrooms and courtyards are connected by communal corridors to form a uniform grid layout in the teaching block. There is no hierarchy or a clear center in the layout, where students are able to move and play freely.
Huts, platforms, courtyards, trees and people, together they create a diverse and interesting urban landscape.
It is our wish that this school could be just like a city, breeding imagination, freedom and miracles.
HUA Li
