INTERIOR SPACES
The building is deformed adopting the shape of an “S” plan to configure two exterior spaces: an access plaza to the west and a playground to the east, based on the premise that two exterior spaces with two different orientations provide greater flexibility than a single space.
All the classrooms turn to the barracks and the pine forest. From all the rooms, the visual connection with nature is the protagonist and the center of attention, since there is no blackboard or teacher’s table. The classrooms are distributed in five areas to which students have free access according to their concerns and needs: sensory area, practical life area, language area, mathematical area and cultural studies area.
Entry to each classroom is through a hall with lockers and benches where children take off their shoes and coats. The low arch in the wall tells us that we are entering spaces designed for the child’s scale.
To enjoy better lighting and ventilation, triple-height vertical spaces have been designed, which we call solar collectors, which are located in a central position and provide additional space and a transversal visual connection between classrooms.
Each classroom is externally complemented by a covered terrace, a small amphitheater, a fountain and a deciduous tree. When the weather allows it, the classroom opens to the outside and the tree with its seasonal changes becomes another companion.
The project grows like an organism, each cell acquires its shape according to its needs and then groups and interacts with the other cells. Once the classrooms are arranged in a fan pattern, the relationship space that unites them is not only a functional place of passage, but also, with its widenings, its corners and its balconies and walkways over the exterior patio, it becomes a meeting space, work and play. An agora turned to the outside puts an end to this tour of relationship spaces.
In all the spaces there are corners designed for the reduced scale of children: taking advantage of lofts over the toilets in the classrooms, under the landings of the stairs, next to windows at ground level. Spaces not accessible due to their reduced height for adults and that become a redoubt and sanctuary of that state we call childhood.

OUTDOOR SPACES
The playgrounds and garden areas (East patio, West terraces and pine forest on the other side of the ravine) are designed or maintained as naturalized spaces: roots, trunks, branches, dry leaves, pineapples, asparagus in spring and mushrooms in autumn are its components. They are not aseptic spaces. No grass, much less artificial grass. It is about students interacting with nature, not about creating a green setting. There are also no sports courts or soccer fields, it is about creating spaces for relationships, calm and equal between genders.
The slopes are used to generate ramps, slides, stairs and climbing walls, balconies and walkways, shelters and caves… and when it rains, when it really rains, watch the tumultuous water pass through the ravine.

Text provided by the architect.

The galleries of the museum are arranged around a light well with 5.7 meters in diameter and 16.4 meters in height, which serves as the organizing “anchor” for all the spaces. The light well is both the starting point and the end point. People will start from passing through the bottom part of the light well, walk along the spiral staircase coiling up to the galleries while inadvertently looking back into the light well through the apertures at different levels, and eventually conclude the journey stepping down from the top gallery along the light well again back to the starting point. While inside the galleries, natural light is filtered and softened by the skylights, penetrating through a grid of 1.9 x 1.9 square meter waffle beam and filling the interior with a homogeneous and immersive light quality. Furthermore, the exterior staircase that connects the second through fourth floors, the protruding corner window on the fourth floor, and a southwest-facing vertical window on the same floor all provide museum visitors with glimpses of the contemporary cityscape of Taiyuan.

As we see it, Changjiang Art Museum is like a solid block of brick – occupying a specific space-time coordinate, bearing witness silently and attentively to the clamorous and ever-changing city around it.

Text provided by the architect.