The domino system ensures both rationality and economy in the structural layout. The front, middle, and back courtyards form a passive architectural ecosystem, while the poetic geometric shapes and vibrant colors stimulate children’s spatial perception. Boxiang Road Kindergarten offers a unique world for children, carrying the special memories of their early artistic development.
▲ The building features a square layout
▲ Play “plugins” of various scales
Pure geometric forms combined with intense colors.
Urban Context
The site is located in the eastern community of Nanxiang Town, Jiading District, bordered by Boxiang Road to the west, Jiaxiu East Road to the north, and Fanglin Road alongside Jingying Lake Scenic Park to the south. Surrounding the site are high-quality residential buildings and a community sports field. The project covers approximately 6,796 square meters of land, with a total construction area of around 5,983 square meters. It is designed to accommodate 15 preschool classes, including one early education guidance room (20 children per class) and five childcare classes (20 children per class), totaling 390 students. The site is notably compact.
▲ Project location map
▲ Architectural facade overview
Order Module
“I always start with a square, no matter the problem.” — Louis Kahn
Confronted with limited land and budget constraints, the design returns to the modernist architectural prototype known as the Domino system. By analyzing the relationship between plot division and building unit arrangement, highly standardized units are unified within a grid-like spatial and structural system. This homogeneous grid structure, composed of square “structural units,” effectively addresses challenges related to low-cost construction while maintaining a simple and pure spatial form.
▲ Order module diagram
▲ Block relationships
▲ Order module details
Central Courtyard Placement
The courtyard is strategically placed to optimize the overall spatial organization, serving as the focal “center” that captures the surrounding area’s order. This placement directs attention inward, fostering direct interaction between indoor and outdoor spaces. Standard units such as toddler rooms, offices, and logistics areas are arranged in a “back” formation around the courtyard, allowing natural sunlight and fresh air into every interior space. The courtyard also functions as a flexible outdoor activity area, providing children with a rich and colorful playground. Additionally, it enables teachers to maintain clear sightlines to ensure children’s safety during independent play.
Colorful Play “Plugins”
Children view the external world with boundless imagination, so the kindergarten space aims to inspire this creativity and exploration. The architect integrated a series of colorful play “plugins” into the grid-based structural units, breaking the uniform spatial rhythm. These “plugins” interlock and nest with the main building using three fundamental geometric shapes: squares, circles, and triangles. This design creates a variety of uniquely shaped and scaled “undefined” spaces, greatly enriching children’s spatial perception and experience. Elevated roofs highlight their self-contained nature, with warm yellows and calming blues further distinguishing these areas.
▲ Play “Plugin” concept
▲ Examples of Play “Plugins”
▲ Integration with the main building
Light acts like a paintbrush, sketching abstract geometric outlines of space. When enhanced with bright yellows and sky blues, the space transforms into a simple yet lively watercolor painting. The architect envisions children naturally sensing changes in color, light, and time as they move through these uniquely characterized spaces.
Garden-Style Pathways
“What is feasible and desirable is not as good as being able to live and travel.” — Guo Xi, Northern Song Dynasty
“Regarding natural landscapes, those that can be walked on and viewed are inferior to those that can be lived in and played with.” — Guo Xi, Northern Song Dynasty
Ancient Chinese scholars crafted gardens as living paintings, aiming to express an infinitely expanding world within a confined space. Inspired by this, the project introduces a garden-style circulation route to create an infinite spatial experience, allowing children to perceive the flow of time and space.
▲ Garden-style circulation route
▲ Rooftop corridor along the garden route
The design uses concepts from Eastern gardens to create a modern spatial sequence. Entering from the gray entrance into the foyer, passing through the square courtyard corridor, and ascending stairs with a triangular bend, the body navigates dynamic spaces with constantly changing views. Square, circular, and triangular “plugins” act as contrasting anchor points within ordered spaces, akin to montage techniques, linking a series of open, discontinuous areas. Through transitions from interior to exterior, top to bottom, and shifting perspectives, children experience spatial transformations as a journey through changing scenery.
▲ “Undefined Spaces” exhibiting vastly different characters
▲ Flow of light and color throughout the spaces
Comprehensive Teaching Spaces
To bring children closer to nature, the activity rooms are oriented southward, facing a large external courtyard to create dual outdoor activity areas. In winter, large windows serve as part of a passive solar heating system, turning the southern classrooms into sunrooms that store heat and transfer warmth indoors. During warmer seasons, air flows through the side and central courtyards, promoting natural ventilation and preventing overheating, ensuring a comfortable environment. The circular corridor has been widened to provide flexible and diverse teaching spaces, allowing schools to adapt and reorganize classrooms according to their educational needs.
▲ Spacious outdoor activity area
▲ Bright and sunny classroom
▲ Expanded circular corridor enhancing flexible space
▲ Multi-purpose hall for all teachers and students
▲ Courtyard light and shadow space
Conclusion
The project spanned five years from design to completion, during which it faced numerous uncontrollable changes and increasing cost challenges, adding complexity. While the final outcome may have minor imperfections in some details, it closely aligns with our original design concept, successfully integrating architecture, interior, and landscape. Each visit to the construction site, witnessing the building’s “skeleton” take shape, moves us with the pure and rational beauty of construction. This experience strengthens our belief in the meaningful role of architects and brings us closer to our ideal vision.
Project Information
Project Name: Boxiang Kindergarten in Jiading District
Owner: Education Bureau of Jiading District, Shanghai
Location: Boxiang Road, Jiading District, Shanghai
Building Area: 5,983 square meters
Project Duration: March 2017 to May 2023
Design Firm: Yu She Yu Zhu
Design Directors: Xu Yi, Chen Xiao, Li Zhiqiang
Architectural Design Team: Gao Fei, Zhao Lu, Cao Zhen, Yang Huanli, Qiao Huirong
Interior Design Team: Pang Yu, Tu Xiaqing
Landscape Design Team: Yu Haoyan, Liu Yazhe, Zhu Mincheng
Lighting Consultant: Stacked Hidden Lighting
Mechanical and Electrical Collaboration: Ma Xiangsheng
Construction Drawing Collaboration: Jianmeng Design Group Co., Ltd
Photography: James Young and Xu Haoyu
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