County Elementary School by Vector Architects

This four-storey school in Tianjin, China, by Vector Architects has a series of irregularly shaped classrooms protruding from the facade on the first floor.

County Elementary School comprises 48 classrooms, a canteen, games field and sports hall.

A series of ramps and staircases lead up to an outdoor terrace at first-floor level that acts as a buffer space between the classrooms, sports hall and playing field.

The roof is punctuated by three giant light-wells that flood the first floor with natural light.

All photographs are by Shuhe Photo.

Here's some more from the architects:

Design Concept:

Our goal is to establish a unique place within the school that encourages interaction between the students and teachers through their daily learning and teaching life.

The basic program consists of 48 classrooms, a number of special program classrooms, cafeteria, training gymnasium, administration areas and an outdoor exercise field.

The design process starts with an analytical research of the spatial pattern of interactive activities, both in plan and in section.

A series of physical study model were built along the process, in order to seek the most reasonable spatial and programmatic layout.

Eventually the best location of the primary interactive space is discovered to be on the 2nd floor, sandwiched by regular classroom floors, and connected to the skylight through the central atrium, where natural ventilation were maximized.

The space is defined by the surrounding special program classrooms, and extends itself to a green roof deck at the south side, which is also the pivot point of the site arrangement.

The deck connects to the main school entrance, the outdoor fields, and different parts of the building at different heights by stairs, ramps and bridges.

Such a “Platform”, consisting of indoor space and outdoor deck, not only generates and amplifies energy of interactions, also adds visual characters to the exterior building appearance because of the application of distinctive materials and space modules.

A series of green technologies are proposed in this project, such as geothermal system, storm water management, green roof, permeable landscape, passive ventilation, maximized natural daylight, recycled material and etc.

Architects: Vector Architects + CCDI

Design Architect: Gong Dong

Partners of Vector Architects: Gong Dong, Chien-ho Hsu