Loading...
2022 GFD 🏆 Awards

Bronze Winner | Changsha Huayuan Middle School | RUF Architects

More and more diversified social needs make both formal and informal communication become an important means of learning for young students. The contradiction between the traditional simple series of single function space and the need for open and free communication is increasingly acute. In the design of Changsha Huayuan Middle School, architects bring a new model of educational space that is more open, comprehensive and multi-time interactive.

Global Future Design Awards 2023: Entries Open! 

Bronze 🏆 Winner
Global Future Design Awards 2022

Changsha Huayuan Middle School
Educational Architecture (Under Construction)

Firm
RUF Architects

Architect/Designer
Qian Mingbo

Design Team
Qian Mingbo, Liu Yang, Jiang Yaxiao, Zhou Fei

Location
Changsha City, Hunan Province, China

Country
China

Photographer/Copyright
©RUF Architects

  • Not only for students, but for parents or family

Every family activity related to the school should be took into account. The project provides a specific place for parents to pick up and drop off; The large canopy at the entrance and the overhead space on the first floor also give a comfortable waiting space.

  • A social school, creating an open city interface

Students can experience a brand-new and open community campus that blends with the city and outside. At the same time, the physical boundaries of school is broken and used as community activity center for different time periods. Its public and sharing function spaces are opened to the society according to their characteristics in different periods (after school, weekends, winter and summer vacations, etc.), so as to reduce the idle function and maximize the efficient use of compound space to serve the whole community.

  • Partial open ground floor

The partial open ground floor was designed to form an open and continuous ground space, while providing a comfortable gray space, so that students can have outdoor activities even if it is windy and rainy. The boundary of the building becomes soft and invisible, resulting in more free spatial communication and place memory.

  • The staircase is an active and exploratory space, creating a loop-like space in the campus

The stairs in the project is no longer a simple traffic function, but an important communication space, where students meet and talk, and experience the feeling of hollow-out window in Suzhou garden style. Each hole is an exit for them to see different scenery, to have a dialogue with people, buildings, and even more with the free scenery.

  • Irregular fenestration could deal with western sun exposure

Compared with the traditional classroom window mode, the irregular fenestration can not only meet the lighting demand, avoid the influence of the western sun exposure, but also promote the lively character of the building facade. The active corridor space between teaching buildings is no longer monotonous. Combined with the open staircase space, the horizontal space and three-dimensional traffic blend here. The long corridor and teaching building enclose the courtyard, which can be used as an active celebration square.