Shanghai Fushan Tangcheng Foreign Language Primary School (Peide Campus) / Huajian Group Shanghai Architectural Design & Research Institute
Shanghai Fushan Tangcheng Foreign Language Primary School (Peide Campus) / Huajian Group Shanghai Architectural Design & Research Institute
Text description provided by the architects. Most of our designers are parents of school-age children. From the beginning of the design, we have regarded the design of this school as a precious opportunity. In the design, we focus more on children’s psychological feelings, and pay attention to children’s experiences, so as to create a more free and natural space for children. Shanghai Fushan Tangcheng Foreign Language Primary School is located at the intersection of Yupan North Road and Peide Road in Pudong New Area. The scale of the project is 40 classes of primary schools, with four floors above the ground and one floor underground. The total building area is 23,000 ㎡. The design arranged the teaching and auxiliary space and surrounded the food transportation building, teaching building, and office building into a huge shared space, forming a semi-opened campus.
Compound Public Space – The age of primary school students is from 6 to 11 years old. The psychological changes in children in five years are huge. Children aged 1-3 who go to school from home need safe and comfortable spaces. Nevertheless, the senior students hope to have more social and public collective activities. The space they need is very different. We have created a compound public space in the middle. The upper and lower floors are closely connected and can be transformed. A number of green patios and stairs connect the upper and lower public spaces, forming a place with rich scales. We hope that the lower layer of the compound space can bear childlike innocence. The height of the space and the radius of the hole on the top ensure the coverage of sunlight. This is a half-indoor space where children (especially junior children) have a sense of security. The second floor is an open outdoor public place, which is a roof garden dominated by green space. The relatively active and continuous outdoor space will bring students a more cheerful emotional feeling, where they can feel and embrace the changes in seasons and climate. Children of different ages can find their own spiritual harbor on campus.
On the return visit to the campus, the teacher told us that the compound space in the middle is very useful. The vague function and flexible space left a lot of imagination for students and teachers to use. They activated these spaces into social platforms, fashion blocks, reading discussions, outdoor theaters, and viewing platforms. Ten minutes between classes, we can see many children playing and playing in the overhead space on the first floor. As long as children are given shelter, they will spontaneously organize various activities. Children also run and play on the big platform under the sun. They do not have high requirements for the professionalism of the playground. What they need is a large number of such informal and interesting spaces that can stimulate more people to participate.
Building Façade – The facade design of the school adopts a very simple style of large faces, just like the graffiti of primary school students, which is simple and abstract. The fully coated facade material gives the hostages a sense of beauty, warmth, and security.
Touchable Sponge City – The whole campus adopts a sponged design, rainwater disconnection, rainwater garden, sunken green space, and pervious ground. These designs not only consider the safety of students but also combine with children’s activity needs, which is the best enlightenment education of sustainable design. This project has also been selected as the sponge city demonstration project of Shanghai architecture and community in 2021.
We hope that children can have endless discussions, free imagination, and happy creation in our carefully designed and interesting architectural space – design is changing the future of education, and the future of education is also being shaped by design.
