The Challenge of Education

The educational system in the People’s Republic of China is facing some fundamental challenges. To date, teaching in schools has been based on passing standardised tests that determine access to colleges and universities. This knowledge has often had little to do with the problems of the real world: understanding how to solve problems requires critical thinking and a questioning of standard answers. New pedagogical approaches are necessary to prepare pupils to develop such an attitude, which in turn require a different spatial setting in the school. 

With their renovation of the approx. 26,000 square metres education campus from the 1980s, the Beijing-based architecture practice Crossboundaries shed a completely new light on educational spaces. The experimental programme of the Chaoyang Future School required untypical spaces in which students could learn in self-organised groups and which could accommodate a broad range of learning modules that deviate from traditional standards. Thus, close cooperation between the architects and the school management was indispensable in the design of the rooms and their very diverse spatial qualities.

The architects focused primarily on two aspects; the conventional – the general upgrading of out-dated facilities to the standards of a modern campus, and the unconventional – interventions that lead to multifunctional solutions. Their aim was to achieve a high degree of flexibility, exchange and the reinforcement of an identity that would also be reflected in the attitudes of teachers and pupils.

The six existing buildings on the campus sit close together within a very cramped neighbourhood. These buildings were originally planned with identical classrooms arranged side-by-side along faceless corridors. The renovation required the adaptation of this spatial programme in such a way that places for multifunctional use and unconventional learning methods could be created. Interventions were made that altered the spatial boundaries of the rigid existing structure by extending the space of the classrooms in three dimensions, and thereby creating collaborative learning spaces complemented by user-defined furniture that stimulate the new possibilities for creativity and inspiration. 

Colours also become an important element, in combination with ornamentation, to enable orientation and identity. The green window frame in the entrance area determines the public appearance of the school. Along the facade, the colour scale changes from green to yellow to red for the Art Centre at the heart of the campus. The running track that winds its way organically between the tightly spaced buildings is bright yellow. Based on the window pattern, new square-shaped windows – with their sizes corresponding to the use behind them – were designed to enliven the volumes specified by the existing buildings.

The renovation thoroughly transforms the traditional school into an identifiable place; from its landscape, through its administration to its apartments and canteen. The building ensemble gives the school management and the teachers the opportunity to inspire a youth with new methods that establish innovation as the core of learning. At the same time, the way in which the existing building stock is treated makes it clear that the responsibility of architects and society today is to accept existing values and adapt them to the social, economic and ecological needs of the time.