Open Architecture believes that if our youth are going to be equipped to deal with the environmental challenges ahead, the wisdom of the ancients needs to be restored to their education. Children need to learn how to respect, balance and protect nature, all of which begins with a healthy and green learning environment. To this end, the green-roofed Garden School in Beijing is comprised of various conventional classrooms and laboratories organized in an organic tree shape that in turn envelops plenty of outdoor green space, blurring the boundaries between indoors and outdoors.
Strategic orientation of the 51,000 square meter Garden School, construction of which is currently underway, makes optimum use of passive solar design, daylighting, and natural ventilation. Some of the classes are held inside, promoting collective, necessary and orthodox learning, which is then juxtaposed against outdoor teaching which encourages individual and free-spirited learning.
Open Architecture believes that presenting students with these different options will teach them how to find balance between the two and therefore prepare them for bigger challenges. In the same way, play has been brought inside, and green patches throughout the Fangshang District school provide opportunities for students to socialize and build community. Although it will be impossible for people everywhere to have schools like this, this design philosophy brings nature right back into focus, as it should be.
Via Arch Daily
