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Beijing City International School Early Childhood Center
Beijing City International School Early Childhood Center
Beijing, China
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Beijing City International School Early Childhood Center
Beijing, China
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2014
The design team's goal was to create a memorable place that would stimulate students' imagination, curiosity and awareness. Designed as a 'city' for 400 pre-school children, the Center was conceived as a magic mountain or landform, with a valley carved out that is a sheltered courtyard for outdoor play. Surrounded by a green roof that spirals up and around from southwest to northeast corners of the U-shaped court, the playground is sheltered from winter winds by a four-story classroom wing, and warmed as the sun enters the space from the south over the shoulder of the ascending mass of the gymnasium.
The site is bordered on the west by an ancient grove that protects the children from the busy Third Ring Road and provides an unexpected natural environment in this dense urban precinct. The classroom blocks were conceived as houses. Articulated on the south façade of the north wing in colored, fiber-cement panels, they recall Chinese calligraphy, while providing a residential scale for the court. Classrooms on three floors share activity rooms where meals are served in a residential setting. Pairs of classrooms are entered through carefully detailed 'gatehouses' and share breakout rooms for storytelling. The building was designed with a rooftop discovery garden, nooks, teahouses and numerous small-scaled spaces to encourage interaction and foster environmental consciousness. Large indoor play spaces complement outdoor ones during harsh winter months and periods of poor air quality.
The Center posits a new paradigm for learning and environmental awareness. Rejecting the model of schools divorced from their environment, this school opens to the city and is layered with diverse environmental and interior experiences. The Center follows no template. It is a unique and embracing structure where inside and outside are simultaneously visible from one another, where frame and picture are one.
The site is bordered on the west by an ancient grove that protects the children from the busy Third Ring Road and provides an unexpected natural environment in this dense urban precinct. The classroom blocks were conceived as houses. Articulated on the south façade of the north wing in colored, fiber-cement panels, they recall Chinese calligraphy, while providing a residential scale for the court. Classrooms on three floors share activity rooms where meals are served in a residential setting. Pairs of classrooms are entered through carefully detailed 'gatehouses' and share breakout rooms for storytelling. The building was designed with a rooftop discovery garden, nooks, teahouses and numerous small-scaled spaces to encourage interaction and foster environmental consciousness. Large indoor play spaces complement outdoor ones during harsh winter months and periods of poor air quality.
The Center posits a new paradigm for learning and environmental awareness. Rejecting the model of schools divorced from their environment, this school opens to the city and is layered with diverse environmental and interior experiences. The Center follows no template. It is a unique and embracing structure where inside and outside are simultaneously visible from one another, where frame and picture are one.
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