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International Primary School Design: Case Study
International Primary School Design: Case Study
International Primary School Design: Case Study
PRIMARY SCHOOL
DESIGN
Case Study
Submitted By- Sumaiya Islam (152081002)
Tazrima Parvin Tonima (152081001)
Administration building
Latrine
Nursery classes
Class arrangement
Library
A specific platform is
dedicated to the
administration and the
library, which has been
designed to
accommodate
a computer center.
Playground
• The organization of classrooms
on different platforms gives
each age group a special space
clearly identified for outdoor
activities, which helps prevent
accidents that may occur when
mixed-age students play
together.
• The open terraces also works
as playfield for each class
students.
Landscape
• The landscaping is an essential part of this project. Outdoor space is used by the
children during breaks and every now and then by the professors during their classes.
• The organization of the space as “stages” allows the outdoor space to be used a bit
like an amphitheater.
• The walkways allow a continuity of the space that could otherwise be very dispersive.
From a visual point of view, the light structure of the buildings, the use of ordinary
materials and the greens of the space help create a continuity of the outside space
with a central “flow” of nature that makes the landscaping a very important part of the
project.
• The vegetation on the slopes helps stabilize the hillside and prevents serious
mudslides after rainfalls.
• Organizing the area into platforms also cleverly diminishes the quantity and speed of
water directly flowing down the slope
CONSTRUCTION & MATERIAL
Structural members
• Classroom
• Open classroom
• Administration
• Play area
• Toilets
• Library
Conclusion
entry
studio Reception
Piazza
Outdoor
seating
cafe
E.O Classrooms
Play Outdoor
play area
area
Layout Details
The layout is composed of classrooms, a studio/atelier and a
childhood stimulation center around a central piazza that
allows for transition between these spaces. Each classroom
additionally comprises of a mini-atelier for smaller group
activities. The varied internal spaces of learning are awash
with daylight that filters through a generously sky-lit roof.
Design features
• Drawing analogy from the traditional gurukul setting, eight structural
columns similar to a branching tree support the sloping roof.
• As a result, the roof is at a perceivable scale giving those under it the
opportunity to interact not only with each other but also with the
architecture. The offices are tucked away on a southwest mezzanine.
The four corners enclose secondary spaces including a café to the
southeast and basic utilitarian services to the northwest.
Mezzanine Floor Plan
SECTION A-A
SECTION B-B
SECTION C-
C
SECTION D-D
SECTION E-E
Overlooking from the mezzanine
Design Features
• No building is an end in itself- it frames, relates, separates and unites,
facilitates and prohibits. When viewed from the outside, the school
resembles an art workshop/studio space. The external envelope is a
composition of fixed panels of perforated metal sheet, reflective glass
and pinewood. A continuous band of perforations wraps the building
below the standard sill height facilitating a visual connect with the
outside world, while ensuring safety of the children. In addition,
operable louvers and sliding windows are suitably positioned to enable
adequate daylight and airflow
NORTH
ELEVATIO
N
SOUTH
ELEVATION
EAST
ELEVATION
WEST
ELEVATION
East elevation
Design Features
• The building consists of four
classrooms, a studio and a
childhood stimulation centre
around a central piazza, with filter
spaces allowing transition
between the rooms and the
piazza.
Design Features
• The toilet is designed with
consideration to the young
age group, cubicles scaled
appropriately for children
as well as their need to be
supervised.
• Open drains in the wash
area and urinal walls are
incorporated for ease of
use and maintenance.
Design Features
• This project explores innate
construction techniques including
a local chappadi granite stone
slab foundation, tactile flooring
with paver blocks and CSEB’s
made of soil from different sites,
a false ceiling from bamboo mats
and a bolted steel support
structure. Together, they sustain
a continuum in space perception
from the outside to inside.
Design Features
• The motility in the perceived
space is heightened by the
curvilinear shape of the
classrooms enclosed with
paper-tube ‘walls’ of
appropriately varying
heights.
Design Features
Inside a classroom
Overlooking central piazza
Structural
Detail
Drawing
Structure Details
Teaching Method
• Rooted in a cognitive learning
approach, the school engages
children under a diverse
mentorship – a place realized
for parents, teachers and
volunteers to contribute to the
process of education; a place
where the resulting nourishing
environment encourages a
child’s mind to explore
endlessly.
Programs
• Reception • Executive office
• Piazza • Classroom
• Play area
• Toilets
• Tree deck
• Pantry
• Car parking
• Studio
Conclusion
• The architects have approached educational design with a balanced
understanding of the physical and metaphysical elements of the site
and the end-user respectively. To quote Juhani Pallasmaa, we feel
pleasure and protection only when the body discovers its resonance in
space. The architecture of The Atelier partakes in one of such sublime
delights of ergonomic proportions that engage the senses. It embraces
the fluidity of the internal spaces and yet, is mindful of the simple
geometry that it is enclosed within.
Tongjiang Recycled
Brick School
CASE STUDY
Basic Information
• Architects Joshua Bolchover - John Lin
• Location Jiangxi, China
• Project team Christiane Lange; Jess Lumley; Mariane Quadros de Souza; Anna Wan
• Project managerMaggie Ma
• Area 1096.0 sqm
• Project Year 2012
• Students 450
• Classrooms 11
• For Villagers
• Building 3storey
Story Of Commission
• Tongjiang Primary School is located in Jianxi Province, south-east
China. The charity World Vision commissioned Joshua Bolchover and
John Lin at The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Architecture, to
design a new school building at no additional cost to a typical school
building found in China. These buildings are generic two story
buildings with open balconies constructed from reinforced concrete
and brick infill.
Background Story
• World Vision asked them to challenge the design of a typical school building in China -
generic two story buildings with open balconies -without incurring major additional costs. As
part of their initial research they organized a workshop with the local school children and
asked them to draw their ideal school building. Surprisingly the majority of the students
drew buildings that resembled these generic school buildings. This demonstrated that these
children simply have not witnessed other possibilities for school design and that their
cultural imagination for other possibilities is limited by knowledge, education and what they
see in their everyday environment. This is not a critique, more a realization that in order to
offer any alternative and not be faced with resistance of the unknown, each project has to
engage with cultural and knowledge exchange and not just the production of the building
itself. With these factors the project aimed to work within these constraints to produce a
building that responded to the site context and could create unique spatial experiences for
learning and social interaction and in turn could demonstrate that school buildings do not all
have to look the same.
Requirements
• A key concept
• The intention is to is to allow the
make use of these school to open
waste materials in up for
the construction of community use
the new school and
through re- participation.
deploying this
material in
innovative ways.
Site & Entry
• The site is at a crossroads between the
main road and a road that leads to the
village.
• Strategically the building is positioned
along the road’s edge to create an open
public space between the new building
and the existing school. Entry
Classroom
Open
classroom
Media room
&
library
Entry
Plan
Elevation
Section
Sectional
model
Sectional
model
Section
Design
• This external skin protects the internal classrooms
from excessive solar gain yet allows for natural
ventilation through the teaching spaces.
• The wall and roof form a thickened edge to the
street façade allowing the more protected façade to
the courtyard to be opened up comprising concrete
fins and vertical glazing.
• The fins vary in size for different functions: thin
strips for solar protection and wider C-sections that
contain bookshelves within the classrooms.
Design
• The natural topography of the site is
manipulated to create a series of outdoor
steps that stretch from the main entrance
across the building and through to the
courtyard beyond.
• This creates a protected open air meeting
room that is directly accessible from the
street.
• The level change advantageously produces a
large assembly hall at ground level that also
functions as a community learning space or
library.
Design
• The building acts as a buffer - a thickened edge - that frames the
open space of the playground.
• The naturally sloped site was terraced into two levels with a
height difference of around 2 metres.
• At the entry to the building a stair leads up to the first floor which
stretches across the site’s entire edge.
• Roof-lights puncture this space providing direct light that
animates the corridor and classroom spaces throughout the day.
• The roof is formed from
recycled brick waste and
rubble that thickens the roof Roof
to provide additional thermal
mass cooling the building in
summer and retaining heat
during the winter.
• The rubble acts as a
substrate for natural
greening from wind-blown
plants, mosses and lichens.
• The roof steps down to join
the wall which gradually
becomes more open through
perforations in the brick
patterning.
Circulation
Construction
Construction
• The intention is to make use of these waste materials in the construction of the new school
through re-deploying this material in innovative ways.
• The roof is formed from recycled brick waste and rubble that thickens the roof to provide
additional thermal mass cooling the building in summer and retaining heat during the winter.
• The rubble acts as a substrate for natural greening from wind-blown plants, mosses and
lichens.
• The roof steps down to join the wall which gradually becomes more open through perforations
in the brick patterning.
• This external skin protects the internal classrooms from excessive solar gain yet allows for
natural ventilation through the teaching spaces.
• The wall and roof form a thickened edge to the street façade allowing the more protected
façade to the courtyard to be opened up comprising concrete fins and vertical glazing.
• The fins vary in size for different functions: thin strips for solar protection and wider C-sections
that contain bookshelves within the classrooms
• .
Construction
Material
Waste Materials
like-
• Recycled
brick waste
• Rubble
• Glass
Programs
• Administration
• Classrooms
• Play area
• Open classroom
• Toilets
• Library
• Media room
Conclusion
• Through an emphasis on the potential of waste material, simple
environmental strategies and the creation of a diversity of
learning spaces, both indoor and outdoor, the school is robust
and adaptable enough to withstand the potential transformation in
the surrounding context.