d+a | Issue 115 • Apr/May 2020

/ EDUCATION / 48 Most of rural Jiangsu, including Beisha, consists of flat agricultural plains that are sporadically interrupted by linearly arranged trees and two or three level houses with pitched roofs and brick facades. Sited on a 9,648m 2 field that is almost completely open on three sides and set between a very loose configuration of basic village houses, the 2,815.4m 2 Jiangsu Beisha Kindergarten was designed as a cluster of 13 buildings set in a formation that imitates a Funing village layout. “Along one side of the site runs the village road, where the user enters the kindergarten. It is meant to be perceived as a natural, integral part of the village,” says the firm’s other co-founder, Dong Hao. “For us, it was crucial to enhance the existing qualities of the site and develop a cluster of buildings with a strong relationship to the place. “Beisha Kindergarten therefore functions as a smaller, slightly modified version of a village, something the children can directly relate to and which has a scale that gives them a sense of familiarity.” SEPARATE BUT CONJOINED The architects allocated 13 different units for functional spaces, but kept these units connected through a circulation ring that links the upper levels of the units via a roofless outdoor platform. On the ground floor is an inner yard that provides protected play areas. On the second floor, the circulation platform provides lookout spots where the children can look down onto the yard or out 2. In Jiangsu villages such as Beisha, most of the adults are away working in the big cities, so the population consists primarily of young children and their grandparents and great- grandparents. 2