Across China, a school-construction boom is showing all the trappings of how architecture might facilitate openness, interaction, and creative thinking in the learning process. Fueled by a demand for alternatives to what many see as a stultifying state education system, a spate of new schools has sparked a proliferation of rooftop gardens, meandering ramps, and, as pretty much everywhere these days, stepped seating. Lots and lots of stepped seating.
Designed by Li Hu and HUANG Wenjing of Beijing-based OPEN Architecture, the Qingpu Pinghe International School in Shanghai checks all these boxes, but goes one further. If the privately owned and operated pre-K to 12 facility, located about a 45-minute drive from the city center, stands out, it’s because it has cleverly broken the rules (and has tuition-paying students whose families can afford it). “Most schools in China are a big building plus a field,” says Li, referring to regulatory requirements that almost inevitably produce that typology. “However, we wanted to make a campus.”
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