Type | Architectural Design

Architect | Huang Mingjian / Co-founder and Principal Architect of MOMENTUM Architects

Completion Year | 2024

Address | Former Tabian Primary School, Qingshan Village

After all the village primary schools in Huanghu Town were merged, the children began attending school in the town center, and the village schools were abandoned. For a long time, the former site of Tabian Primary School was used as a factory and construction site.Qingshan School was designed by architects who are new residents of the village. Centered around the interconnected concepts of nature, learning, and community, the design aims to create a new type of school that dialogues with the green mountains and clear waters, sparks children's intrinsic motivation to learn, and builds reciprocal relationships within the rural community.

Rebuilt on the former site of Tabian Primary School, Qingshan School takes "Extraordinary Earth" as its core concept. It explores diverse expressions of earth's colors and textures in architecture, creating a distinctive school centered on "nature + learning + community".

The school faces Qingshan Stream and is surrounded by rice fields. It adopts the simple, peaceful warm yellow earth tone of traditional architecture in Qingshan Village, mimicking rammed-earth techniques to create school buildings that best harmonize with the rural setting, while preserving the original double-sloped roof form.Inside this modest, rustic building, traditional classroom layouts are reimagined from children's perspectives and interests. A variety of flexible, diverse learning spaces achieve an organic blend of beauty and functionality.