Exterior glass wall. Image © arch-exist
- Architects: schneider+schumacher
- Location: Tianjin, China
- Lead Architects: Michael Schumacher
- Project Architects: Nan Wang, Joachim Wendt
- Design Team: Edwin Heimberg, Peichen Pan, Elisabet Aguilar Palau, Xiuyuan Zhang, Luni Lu
- Area: 62500.0 m2
- Project Year: 2017
- Photographs: arch-exist
- Collaborators: Tianjin Architecture Design Institute
- Clients: TEDA Administrative Commission Infrastructure Center
Viewing school building from the playground. Image © arch-exist
Text description provided by the architects. This is a reconstruction project for TEDA No.1 Secondary School. The school’s layout was messy and each function space was isolated. Children had to walk a long way to reach the canteen, gymnasium and library, etc. We try to use a unified design approach to integrate all those functional spaces.
Building main entrance. Image © arch-exist
Design method
Gymnasium interior. Image © arch-exist
Anti-traditional campus’s public space – “braids”
By using an efficient public corridor, we create shortcuts that linking various functional spaces of the building. Corridor is like the building’s “spine”, becoming the centered traffic space in the building.
Corridor section
Through studying the 3 dimensional space, we’d like layers of dislocated open spaces rather than traditional 3m-wide corridors, and making the corridors in 5 different levels intervolve like ‘Braids’.
Interior corridor. Image © arch-exist
This corridor runs through the schoolyard, creating a series of open and flexible public spaces. Here, children could obtain ways of walking experience, which are fundamentally different from the ordinary school experiences.
3F plan
Anti-traditional facade of faculty buildings – “curtain wall system”
For the elevations design, we choose warm yellow stone with glass curtain wall, rather than red bricks for traditional school facade, trying to creating a distinctive facade appearance for the children.
Horizontal component detail. Image © arch-exist
For the regions of the classroom building where lighting is required, vertical stone strips are used; for the art building that has harsh requirements for the lighting environment, decorated horizontal stone strips are used.
Vertical component detail. Image © arch-exist
Section
Stone facade detail. Image © arch-exist
Vertical and horizontal decorative lines comprise a clear and rhythmic facade, corresponding to different architectural features, makes this project an iconic example in the new era.
Street corner view. Image © arch-exist