SUZHOU SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Narratives

Reinterpretating the Suzhou Garden

Located on a 14-hectare site, the school, with a GFA of 87,500 sqm, comprises of teaching facilities, sports and recreations facilities, performance venues, a community learning centre and a hostel, and will accommodate 4000 students at full capacity.<br>

The full campus will be made up of three schools � nursery and kindergarten, primary and secondary. Each school has its drop-off and entrance area and dedicated zoning, but is integrated with each other by an overall architectural language (with slight variations for each school) as well as shared use of administration blocks and performance spaces.<br>

The masterplan for the school is conceived based on the need for phased development as a result of the urgent timeframe as well as to cater for future growth. This means that the main consideration is to achieve a seamless transition by minimising coordination downtime and disruption to the school’s operations between phases.<br>

The other major consideration is to ensure that safety and security is not compromised through clarity of circulation as well as private and public zones. This is especially important in this school as it incorporates a shared community-learning component.<br>

The individual schools within the campus are arranged in clusters that provide a sense of enclosure yet without being isolated. Flexibility and adaptability within the learning spaces are ensured in order to accommodate a variety of learning experiences and modes. These clusters are designed with a strong sense of indoor and outdoor connections, by allowing break-out terraces that open to the outdoor landscaped and play areas. In addition, teaching and learning activities are extended into the corridor areas. As a result, corridor spaces are transformed into learning streets and corners.<br>

The planning adopts an open concept in the form of a courtyard space, adapted from the Suzhou garden typology. This courtyard becomes the central hub which serves as the main gathering space not only for the public and parents, but also for adult students attending night classes.<br>

The architectural language draws clues from the detailing of the old campus, with its tripartite composition with clay-tiled pitched roofs and a red base. The new school builds upon this established image and develops it with subtle distinctions, such that it consists of hints of its historical past yet charges along in a contemporary manner.

Educator Narrative

The school aims to create an integrated and holistic learning environment which will promote both individuality as well as the group.

The main academic program is supported by more than a hundred spacious learning studios as well as large resource and research areas. Emphasis is also placed on Arts and Sports — an entire wing is dedicated to music and visual arts, Drama Centre with two theatres, Sports with extensive multi-functional sports halls, swimming pools and outdoor sports fields. The school is also supported by a fully wireless network such that learning can take place everywhere and anywhere — learning is literally mobile and interdisciplinary.

The building design blends the practical and functional with the aesthetic and educational. Each of the five main teaching blocks is separated by a themed garden, each of which represents a different continent. At the same time, the gardens provide break-out spaces for contemplation as well as small group and class activities relating to the environment or the arts. This encourages both teachers and students to make use of the indoor and outdoor spaces creatively for a variety of learning experiences.

It is found that in the school, each student, no matter how young, has a sense of belonging and identification to a particular area, be it due to colour or special spatial features. As a result, the internal spaces, such as the corridors, of the school are colour-coded. For example, the nursery students can easily identify their ‘territory’ with their orange-colour corridor, in a building with strong primary colours, just as the Secondary student can identify with the pastel shades which predominate their building.

The orientation of the ground floor classrooms is also a strong feature of this building. The classes for the youngest early years and Primary students open out onto the garden areas. In doing so, both indoor and outdoor spaces offer a wide variety of learning conditions for the young students.

Internal corridors open to a central meeting and activity area, thus enabling the circulation areas to become multi-functional spaces — small project work areas, discussion corners, reading niches, etc.

The use of movable partitions between classrooms in the Early Years and Primary buildings allows two or more classes to become a single unit, thus facilitating cooperative learning exercises, making greater use of a variety of spaces and resources.