More than an Architect

Crossboundaries' first project in the education sector was “Family Box” in Beijing in 2008. Family Box was a learning space, something between an indoor playground and a kindergarten, where the primary concept was learning through play—an idea that was quite new to Chinese parents at the time.

Over the years, more projects for toddlers and young children followed, and we witnessed a real boom in the development of learning spaces around us. Subsequently, Crossboundaries became involved in straightforward classroom upgrades, early childhood learning facilities, emerging school campuses, and primary and secondary school buildings, the latter also including the design of outdoor spaces and landscaping. These projects were located all over China, in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, as well as in less prominent locations in provinces like Fujian and Zhejiang, where we carried out projects in rural areas.

As we designed more and more educational spaces in different settings, we naturally became interested in the "learning process" itself and began creating and conducting workshops for children. We used our own studio as a teaching space to introduce a unique set of skills to the field of education, including design thinking, creative thinking, and analytical thinking. Creating a dialogue with children and their parents became our way of engaging in this participatory experiment, which we understand as part of “learning.”

These activities significantly helped us better understand the needs of future learning spaces, enabling us to now directly apply this knowledge to our designs.

Globally, significant changes are taking place in the education sector, and these new teaching and learning concepts should ideally be reflected in spatial design. Since educational spaces have a profound and direct influence on people and their social behavior, we embrace the assumption that “we shape space, and space shapes us.”

In China, we face specific constraints in the planning process. China is the most populous country in the world, with extreme disparities in development standards between urban and rural areas. It is also a highly centralized state.

When planning public schools, we are frequently tasked with meeting the demand for standardized learning environments and classrooms designed to accommodate up to 50 children. In the eyes of many teachers and educators, these still work well for delivering a generic education. However, in reality, these classrooms—where all children focus on the same activity led by a teacher at the front—often go against children's natural initiative. In light of an uncertain future, an important first step is to shift from teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning, encouraging students to explore, seek knowledge independently, and foster their creativity.

As a result, learning should not be confined to the classroom but happen everywhere. If, as planners, we are unable to change classroom boundaries—whether due to restrictions or only in certain projects—we must focus on other areas. In schools, these include public spaces, connecting and circulation areas such as hallways and staircases, where children gather and socialize. Additionally, we can emphasize outdoor spaces and the connection between indoor and outdoor environments to transform the campus into a learning landscape. These areas have seen immense improvement in recent years.

The Beisha Kindergarten, a project located in rural Jiangsu, still includes classrooms but emphasizes the connections between spaces and the integration of indoor and outdoor areas. By creating an elevated outdoor pathway organized around a multifunctional open space at the center of a cluster of buildings, the design naturally invites children to explore and observe. From here, they can oversee their "territory," go up and down stairs, connect with peers, and engage in play while feeling safe at the same time. Since the pathway is elevated, children experience a different perspective and are close to nature, with tree canopies within reach. The rural environment in this example also supports outdoor activities.

In the design of the public park for Songzhuang, we incorporated the "room" as an abstract element to thematically frame gathering spaces within an urban setting.

We designed this park in response to the neighborhood’s diverse and vibrant community, offering "urban rooms" with distinct features such as seating areas and sports activities. These are connected by a yellow path that encourages interaction, fostering a sense of community. It promotes behaviors like sharing, caring for one another, and learning from each other.

At the center, we integrated a "room" dedicated to children's play: a vibrant yellow environment, open to the sky and interrupted by cutouts of various sizes for hiding and seeking. Along its walls runs a series of speaking tubes that connect to one another, inviting children to sing and shout while their parents and grandparents observe from a distance. This space serves as both a site of interaction and learning, providing a high level of knowledge transfer as children of different ages naturally play together.

Lifelong learning—whether you are young or old—and learning anywhere—whether in a kindergarten or a public park—can help us prepare for the complex times that lie ahead. Keep learning!