8 enriching schools designed to inspire more holistic learning

Nestled amidst the lush Balinese jungle along the Ayung River, the campus, built in collaboration with PT Bambu, includes classrooms, gyms, assembly spaces, housing, and more—innovatively crafted from locally-grown bamboo, and powered by alternative energy sources, such as bamboo sawdust heating, hydro-vortex generators and solar panels.

Alongside a 23-metre bamboo bridge with a Minangkabau-inspired roof over the Ayung River, the school’s communal and extracurricular facility The Arc exemplifies IBUKU’s commitment to bamboo as a durable and versatile construction material.

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A collaboration with Atelier One, which was awarded the Architecture MasterPrize Design of the Year in 2021, The Arc features a series of interconnected anticlastic gridshells spanning 19 metres. Curving in two directions, the arches come together through bundles of bamboo culms, forming the criss-crossing parabolic arcs.

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Situated in the Nordhavn harbour area in Copenhagen, Denmark, the international school is the city’s largest educational institution, welcoming 1,200 students within its expansive 26,000 sqm premises.

Designed by C.F Møller Architects, the school’s distinctive sequin-like façade is adorned with 12,000 individually angled solar panels, covering a total area of 6,048 sqm. The solar array ranks among Denmark’s largest building-integrated systems, supplying over half of the school’s annual electricity consumption.

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Nestled along the port-side promenade, the main school building is subdivided into four smaller towers, creating a sense of identity while facilitating ease of navigation. Ranging from five to seven stories, academic and extracurricular spaces within are tailored to meet the developmental needs of students at different stages of learning.

The four towers are built atop a ground-floor base housing essential communal amenities, such as the foyer, sports facilities, canteen, library and performance spaces. There is also a shared roof terrace, serving as a secure playground for the entire school community, particularly beneficial for the youngest pupils.

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Spanning 537 sqm, the layout of the Muku Nursery School in Fuji, Japan, resembles bubbles ascending gracefully into the air, an innovative bubble planning concept conceived by Tezuka Architects that combines functional freedom, optimal visibility, and an environment conducive to nurturing children’s innate tendencies for exploration and movement.

While circular floor plans often encounter challenges related to furniture arrangement and structural complexity, Tezuka Architects’ approach offers distinct advantages over conventional modular designs.

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For one, the design embraces unrestrained geometric boundaries, allowing for flexibility in positioning and sizing of each functional space based on diagrammatic analysis.

These rounded forms give rise to infinite combinations, seamlessly integrating with the shallow 30-centimetre pool with gentle slopes, which is drained during the winter months.

Furthermore, the circular shapes and gaps between the “bubbles” ensure excellent 360-degree visibility–a critical requirement for nurseries and kindergartens with children that require round-the-clock surveillance.

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Amidst the arid Thar Desert in Rajasthan, the Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School by Diana Kellogg Architects, commissioned by CITTA, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting development in marginalised communities, where female literacy rates hover around a mere 32 per cent.

The school caters to up to 400 girls from kindergarten to class 10, offering education in traditional arts like weaving and embroidery.

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Crafted from golden Jaisalmer sandstone and hand-carved by local artisans, the oval-shaped structure envelops the school in a protective embrace. The Jali walls not only serve as modesty screens for the girls to play freely in the secure courtyard space but also facilitate cooling airflow throughout the building.

Besides utilising ancient building techniques, and local materials to reduce carbon emissions, the design team further enhances the build through thoughtful sustainable incorporations, such as a solar panel canopy on the roof as a cooling system engineered to endure scorching temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius.

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The Komera Leadership Centre, situated in rural eastern Rwanda, stands as a vital pillar of the community that fosters growth and empowerment. While offering essential health, education and mentorship programs for young women, it also serves as a hub for family development initiatives and community gatherings.

Drawing inspiration from traditional “Imigongo” art, BE_Design reflects the Rwandan word “Komera”—meaning “to stand strong with courage”—in the build design.

Incorporating locally-sourced materials for its roof forms, woven eucalyptus screens and intricate brick patterns, the flexible layout of the centre accommodates a wide array of activities.

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Large, hinging translucent panels allow for versatile configurations, transforming three classrooms into a spacious meeting hall when opened at 90 degrees, or an event space for performances and ceremonies when fully opened to 270 degrees. 

The expansive roof connects the various administrative, educational and communal spaces indoors, while also providing ample covered exterior spaces for breakout classes and informal meetings, where the eucalyptus screens offer shade, and a sense of enclosure and privacy.

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Named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival 2023, the boarding school campus in the Jiangbei District of China was designed by Approach Design Studio/Zhejiang University of Technology Engineering Design Group.

The “floating forest” campus is a bold exploration of an “efficiency-first” campus design, in which adolescent students can “waste time” mindfully to release stress between lessons and re-adjust their bodies and minds amidst the discoverable beauty of nature.

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A gently sloping roof doubles as an open-air lecture hall, and a rooftop park with sporting facilities, which are accessible to the public on weekends. 

Free-form classrooms and other academic facilities hang from different corners of the building, interconnected through meandering paths adorned with scattered treehouses that offer students temporary escapes to unwind and relax.

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The Marga Klompé Building is the forested campus of Tilburg University in The Netherlands that pushes the boundaries of sustainable architecture, being the first college building in Europe to be entirely constructed from solid wood.

Designed by Powerhouse Company, it spans 33 by 33 metres, with a Portuguese natural stone façade that pays homage to the iconic 1962 Cobbenhagen Building, forming an intriguing contrast with the lush surroundings.

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Inside, it accommodates approximately 1,000 students in its foyer, auditorium, 13 lecture halls and self-study spaces—with walls, floors, stairs and finishes utilising natural, circular materials such as wood, terrazzo and plasterwork.

Besides meeting acoustic requirements with the wooden ribbed flooring, the cube-shaped central atrium minimises energy loss through an innovative insulation system that incorporates recycled denim jeans. 

Additionally, a heat-pumped ground storage system contributes to the building’s near energy-neutral status and BREEAM Outstanding certification.

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Designed collaboratively by Jan Knippers Ingenieure, Menges Scheffler Architekten and allmannwappner, Texoversum—an expansion campus of Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences located in Reutlingen, Germany.

It is a pioneering example of the potential of innovative fibre-based materials and textile techniques in modern architectural design.

Textile construction is the overarching theme for the 4,110 sqm teaching, research and innovation hub, with a world’s-first façade comprising woven carbon and glass fibre tiles–each tailored to distinction using a robotic winding process.

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The exterior cutouts offer glimpses into Texoversum’s industrial-style interior that fosters a collaborative work environment amidst its open floor plan and split-level intervals woven together in the atrium. The spatial continuum culminates in a spacious rooftop terrace.

Besides that, neutral materials of unfinished concrete, technical ceilings and exposed ductwork are accentuated by a continuous colour gradient reminiscent of the historic Gobelins tapestry factory in Paris.

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