Garden School

A school with open spaces for nature built in

This building is part of a larger scheme to build a healthier and self-sustainable new town just outside Beijing. The desire to create more open spaces filled with nature, combined with the space limitations of the site, inspired a strategy on the vertical dimension, creating multiple grounds by separating the programs into above and below, and inserting gardens in-between. The roof-top of the upper building is designed to be an organic farm, with 36 plots - one for each class in the school, providing students the chance to learn the techniques of farming, and also paying tribute to the site’s pastoral past.