Case Study: Teikyo University Elementary School by Kengo Kuma & Associates

Teikyo University Elementary School Kengo Kuma & Associates 2012

Hedda Christine JernĂŚs Lene Steinsland Kvinge

Situation Plan 1:1500

Vegetable garden

a´

Home economics/ Arts and lunch room crafts education Lunch terrace center

Media terrace Home economics education center

Arts and crafts

Music terrace

Creative terrace

Music hall Catering room Exhibition corner

Health center Security

Locker rooms

Media open space Music open space

Entrance hall Semi-outdoor corridor

Storage

Natural science library English classroom Science education center

Media center/library

Office

Art gallery open space

Humanities library

Lower grades data rooms Science laboratory

Gymnasium

(Open space)

Stage Teachers lounge

Nursery school

(Open space)

(Open space)

(Open space)

(Open space)

2nd grade classrooms

1st grade classrooms

Science open space

(Open space)

English classroom

Science laboratory Storage

Storage

a

Biotope

Music room

Image below: Teikyo University Elementary School Photo: From Kengo Kuma and Associates

Teikyo University Elementary School Kengo Kuma & Associates

Project information: Site area: 22 852 m2 Built area: 4 405 m2 Total area: 7 782 m2 Floor area for each story:

Ground floor: 4 082 m2

First floor: 2 390 m2

Second floor: 1 310 m2 Design period: 07.2010 - 02.2011 Construction period: 02.2011 - 02.2012 Structure: Reinforced concrete and partly reinforcing steel, steel frame

Project description: Teikyo University Elementary School is situated on the western outskirts of Tokyo, in the town of Tama. The school consists of a gymnasium and a school building with 18 classrooms partly framing the schoolyard and outdoor area facing south. The two buildings are connected by the roof, making a sheltered corridor between the main entrances of the gymnasium and the school.

According to Kuma, the school is “a wooden schoolhouse of our age�. The building is three storeys tall, clad in Japanese cedar and covered with a large steel roof. The roof has been inspired by nagaya; traditional 1-storied terraced houses arranged in a row, usually under one single roof. By changing the length and height of the eaves, the roof creates a diversity responding to the environment and the different programs. The north side is meant to respond to the public houses standing in lines, while the south side is meant to behave more relaxed and respond to the green hills. The two top floors have also been set back with a balcony.

The south facade is cladded differently following the dimensions of the classrooms, making the facade look like 12 different-sectioned traditional terraced houses. The facade has alternating bands of glass and cedar in three

traditional japanese methods of cladding: hameita-bari (wood panel cladding), yamato-bari (a Japanese version of board-and-batten) and renji (vertical timber louvres traditionally used to cover windows, doors and other openings).

The classrooms are arranged on the south side of the building, while the communal rooms are situated on the north side, separated by a large corridor labeled lounge and open space. This acts as additional classroom and learning space. The communal rooms includes a three story media centre, canteen, library and music rooms amongst some. The ceiling is modified in several areas of the school, to reveal the slanted roof from all three floors.

Together with the balconies and sloped floors, these means enhances the communal rooms.

The interior is mostly cladded in chipboard and the classrooms have large sliding glass doors to make the classroom become one with the lounge area in the corridor a part of the learning space.

The roof is used to collect rainwater through drainpipes, streaming down the artificial stream and nurturing a biotope in front of the science room. The roof in the south also has absorber plates to gather warm air and heat the classrooms during winter, as well as absorbing the hot air in the summer.

Image Below: The Media Centre on the ground floor Photo: Takumi Ota

The architecture of Teikyo University Elementary School The following essay concerning Teikyo University Elementary School is introduced with a brief review of Japanese schools historically and pedagogically, followed by an examination of how the architecture of Teikyo reflects and deals with these aspects.

History The school system in Japan goes back to the 6th century, where Chinese knowledge, Buddhism and Chinese written language was introduced in Japan. Chinese and Korean teachers were invited, and schools had an elitist character from these days. In the Heian period (782 - 1184), the aristocracy established numerous private schools. These schools have remained an important, and in recent years a prestigious, way of schooling in Japan.

From the end of the 12th century until the Meiji restoration in 1866, the political leadership was in the hands of the shogun. This leadership was characterized by feudal regime, a society with a system of heredity classes, where the Japanese samurais (the shogun) were the most important class, and this leadership influenced the education. Buddhist temples in Kyoto and Kamakura were the educational centres during the first years of the Shogun reign. In the 16th century, known as the Tokugawa period, education still took place in relation to Buddhist temples, but it was spread out to the whole population. During the Tokugawa period, the temple schools were private schools taught by munks or warriors, either in the Buddhist temples or in private homes. In this way the temple schools gave children from all parts of society the opportunity to learn, and the Tokugawa period is assumed to be the beginning of education for the whole Japanese population (Sandal, Thune, & Welle-Strand, 2013). The Japanese temples were wooden buildings of solid hand crafted work, located in beautiful gardens (Kiran, 2013). The temple schools remained the main schooling centres until the historical Meiji restauration, starting in 1866. The Meiji restoration lead to two important political and social changes in Japan: The power was given back to empire after 650 years of shogun leadership, and it was decided to modernize the society - to some extent with influence from the Western culture and science. In Japan, one mainly counts the beginning of schooling from 1886, where the modern elementary school system started as compulsory education for all

children (Sandal, Thune, & Welle-Strand, 2013).

School system and pedagogy In Japan the school system is quite similar to the Norwegian, starting with primary school at the age of 6, continuing with three years of middle school/junior high, which is also compulsory in Japan. 95 % of Japanese children continue on to high school. The standard size of a class is between 30 and 40 pupils in Japan. Japanese schools are considered quite tough and characterized by hard competition, hard work and cramming (Sandal, Thune, & Welle-Strand, 2013). In Japan, the schools are regarded as highly important in developing the individuals of the population - having “a major role in the production of desirable human beings” as Cave claims (2007). The pupils have to work hard to pass auditions both for private schools and the preceding schools after elementary school, which has led to the unfortunate consequence of bullying and school refusal among a lot of children (Sandal, Thune, & Welle-Strand, 2013). In the 1980’s, an awareness of these factors lead to a change in the Japanese pedagogy, and the expression “learning without stress” (yutori-kyouiku), became important. The pupils were given less work, and the schedule was narrowed to fewer hours per day. In the 1990’s teaching on Saturdays was abolished. However, this has had the regrettable consequence that Saturdays consists of private teaching for children who can afford it. In recent years, the image of how the students should develop has also changed from the idea of democratically-minded children to more individual, independent and creative traits. Alongside these more individually concerned skills, the traditional thoughts of the importance of socially adjusted children are stressed (Cave, 2007).

In the following section the architecture of Teikyo University Elementary School will be examined and discussed in relation to the presented historical and pedagogical features of Japanese schools.

Teikyo University Elementary School Teikyo is a private school, and therefore rather exclusive in Japan. The site of Teikyo is in the outskirts of Tokyo, and in relation to the city it is quite unique with its spacious surroundings. It is neighboured by a cluster of apartment blocks, a car park and the campus buildings of Teikyo University are spread out on the southern side of the school. Consisting of a rectangular building volume under one roof, the school has a large northern facade

Illustration: Space Syntaxt How the rooms are connected

towards the street, and a southern facade towards the school yard. The two main entrance are situated on the southern part, so the children are always met by the school yard when entering the building.

With its three stories, the division of the children’s ages follows the floors, with the youngest children on the ground floor, the middle aged on the middle floor and the oldest groups on the upper floor. All classrooms are facing the south, and all other functions are facing the north and stretching out to the east and west. The hallway running alongside the classrooms is an important learning area, with different forms of open spaces, such as art gallery, media open space, lounges and study corners. As well as being a central learning area itself, the hallway links the classrooms to the media centre, an important part of the school. The media centre is a vertical box that stretches through all three floors on the northern side of the building. In order to accommodate the varying pedagogical needs of the children, the media centre holds different space organizations and functions on the three floors.

There are several interesting features about the building, and especially the classrooms. The architects have based the classrooms on all levels to accommodate 36 pupils, but the format of the rooms vary on the three floors. In addition to traditional “desk and blackboard”-teaching,

the classrooms for the youngest children holds an area with small tables, whereas this zone of group tables is moved outside the classrooms on the two upper levels.

According to the architects, the classroom configuration of the youngest children is meant to induce individual learning, while mainly focusing on group learning. Here part of the pedagogical trend in Japan can be tracked: Individual learning is important, while one also needs to make room for the group and social learning. Presumably this plan at the ground floor also facilitates a higher need for control over the youngest children, as they are all gathered within one room. The same goes for the media centre, which is designed in one large space at this floor.

On the two higher levels however, the media centre is divided into smaller sections. The architecture of the classrooms for the older children follows the same principle as in the media centre, and makes sense considering the architect’s wish to divide group learning and individual learning more gently on the upper levels.

The configuration of all of the classrooms is also interesting. Like pearls on a string, the classrooms are arranged with opaque walls between them. Contrasting these two closed parallel walls, the side from which one enters and the facade towards the school yard are a lot more transparent and flexible. The entrance side of the classrooms consists exclusively of moveable partitions of polycarbonate, allowing light - but no sight - into the

Top Image:Classroom on ground floor Bottom image:Classroom on 2nd floor Photos: Takumi Ota

room. These doors also allows the class room to stand completely open towards the open corridor space. The facade wall of all classrooms is fully glazed, allowing view of the trees planted in the school yard - one tree is planted centrally in front of each class room. As the glazed facade and the polycarbonate wall are parallel, they let a lot of light into the corridor area. These architectural grips are simply elegantly performed, and the design of the classrooms give several associations to the old temple schools. The polycarbonate walls is obviously a descendant of the shojis - the sliding doors with translucent Japanese paper, which is an important part of the old Japanese temple architecture. In the temples, which we know were surrounded by beautiful nature, sliding elements in the facade enabled fully open walls so that nature became part of the room. The fully glazed walls towards the systematically planted trees at Teikyo give clear parallels to the temple architecture. For some reason, the second floor classrooms do not have windows from the floor to the ceiling alike the two lower ones.

However, it seems rather clear that this is the thought behind the band of windows at all levels.

As in traditional Japanese style, the classroom is neatly organized, with no unnecessary superfluous furniture.

The only freestanding furniture is desks and chairs.

Shelves for the children are an integrated part of the

wooden wall. They also seem to be designed for the respective age groups, growing taller for the older children.

The footprint of the classrooms is compact. For the first and second floor classrooms (where group zones are left outside the room), the footprint is no more than 55 m2.

These classrooms accommodate 36 pupils. Compared to Norwegian classrooms, which often are meant to hold a maximum of 30 pupils on a far greater area, the classrooms at Teikyo are compact. The architects have obviously worked consistently through the plan, leaving no superfluous square meters in the rooms, and the rooms seem to hold a sense of intimacy.

When it comes to materials, the architects express that they aimed at a “wooden school house of our age” (Frearson, 2013), which draws clear parallels to the traditional wooden temple schools. In achieving this, they chose to build a school consisting of a large gabled roof and wooden cladding both in the interior and on the facade. However, the load bearing of the building is not made out of wood, but concrete and steel. In Architectural Review, Frearson has criticized this fact (2013), as it becomes a paradox, or at least a cliché to aim for a wooden building, but not fully creating it. At first it is tempting to agree, as a wooden structure could have given

the project a greater tectonic integrity. The architects have not explained why the building structure is out of concrete and steel. Cost could have been a factor, but wooden schools cost about 5 percent more to build than concrete ones, and the ministry has increased subsidies for construction of them, so presumably cost has not been a decisive issue. The risk of earthquake could have been a reason for the choice to build the structure of concrete and steel too, but in the 1980’s, technological advances made construction of wooden schools more earth quake-resistant, which impairs this argument too (Shinichiro, 2014). Fire issues might explain the construction materials. One can also speculate whether technological advances might have directed the choice of a concrete and steel construction. Either way - does it in any regard need to be a weakness of a building that only the cladding is wood, and not the structure, considering the architect’s aim of a wooden building? In an interview with Dezeen in 2014, Kengo Kuma states that “totality of architectural design includes textures, the soft and hardness of the material, the smell of the material and the acoustic effect of the material” (Pallister, 2014). It is difficult to give an opinion on these qualities of the building when the project still remains unvisited, but through studies of the project, one gets the impression that all these aspects have been taken consistently into

account. And if the esthetic, tactile and acoustic qualities are obtained in the rooms, there seems to be no important reason to criticize the use of concrete and steel.

Conclusion The design of Teikyo University Elementary School clearly appears to be a product of both Japanese historical and pedagogic heritage. The architecture of the classrooms are especially accentuating this. With their wooden interior, the neat furnishing of few and precise furniture elements and flexible partition walls, these rooms have the qualities of the traditional temple architecture as a teaching environment.

The architects have aimed to offer flexible classrooms according to the contemporary pedagogical demands of “individuality, but sociality”. And it seems that they have succeeded accordingly, by creating such neat and precise, but flexible learning environments. There seems to be an awareness of the scale of the users, both in terms of the footprint of the rooms, and the thoughtfully integrated furniture elements. Compared to the Norwegian schools we have visited, there seems to be a lot to learn from Teikyo in this regard.

Image below: Media center

Top image :Open space (hallway) on the 2nd floor Bottom image: Open space (hallway) on the ground floor Photos: Takumi Ota

Image left: Music hall Bottom image: Home economics and lunch room Photos: Takumi Ota

Image Below: The school seen from the south Photo: Takumi Ota

Image Below: Vegetable garden and norhern facade Photo: Takumi Ota

Image left and top right: Cladding material on southern facade Bottom right: Cladding materials on norhern facade Photo: Takumi Ota

Music terrace Music hall Catering room Exhibition corner

Health center Security

Locker rooms

Me

Music open space

Entrance hall Semi-outdoor corridor

Storage

Office

Lower

Gymnasium

(Open space)

Stage Teachers lounge

Storage

Storage

Nursery school

(Open space)

(Ope

1st grade classroom

Plan Ground Floor 1:500

Vegetable garden

a´

Home economics/ Arts and lunch room crafts education Lunch terrace center

Media terrace Home economics education center

Arts and crafts Creative terrace

Natural science library English classroom Science education center

edia center/library

Media open space

Art gallery open space

Humanities library

grades data rooms Science laboratory

en space)

(Open space)

(Open space)

(Open space)

2nd grade classrooms

ms

Science open space

English classroom

Science laboratory

a

Biotope

Music room

Reception room Meeting room

Conference room

Music hall

Faculty and staff hall

3rd grade lounge (Open space)

(Open space)

Gymnasium 3rd grade classrooms Faculty lounge

Principal’s office

Broadcasting room Sponsoring office Education Counseling Room Chairman’s office

(Open

Plan 1st Floor 1:400

Conference rooms

Lounge

Media center

4th grade lounge space)

(Open space)

Home economics room

(Open space)

(Open space)

Children’s wardrobe

Emperor Hall

Music hall

4th grade classrooms Center of Excellence

Terrace

M

5th grade lounge

Faculty and staff hall 5th grade open space

5th grade study corner Education Counseling Room Children’s wardrobe

Plan 2nd Floor 1:400

Media center Upper grades data room

Lounge

6th grade lounge 6th grade open space

6th grade study corner

Plan classrooms ground floor 1:200

Lower grades: One versatile classroom A versatile classroom environment that facilitates working with multiple subjects in one room. This classroom focuses on group learning, but also stimulates individual learning with the more secluded spaces within the room.

The students are learning and working within the classroom.

Moveable partition of polycarbonate

Electronic blackboard

Planting belt Sanitary corner Media corner Teacher’s corner Observation corner

Left: Plan classrooms 1st floor 1:200 Right: Plan classrooms 2nd floor 1:200

Middle grades: Partly divided with adjoining work spaces

Higher grades: A more open learning environment.

A classroom where the students can use different areas depending on how the subject is taught. Composed of different areas, the classroom gently divides collective, group and individual learning situations, with the possibility to open or close the classroom towards the open space. The students can, to a certain extent, work and learn outside the classroom.

This classroom environment contains both a “regular” classroom and a large open space outside the classroom.

The environment therefore responds flexibly to all learning situations. The open space and classroom can be opened up or closed off, and is ideal for a more divided learning environment - accommodating both collective and individual learning. The students are more free to move around and can more freely choose where to work and learn.

Open space

Moveable partition of polycarbonate

Open space

Learning section

Electronic blackboard

Moveable partition of polycarbonate

Electronic blackboard

Balcony Teacher’s corner

Eaves Teacher’s corner

Image Below: Lounge area and lunch room Top right: Section a-a 1:200 Image bottom right: Media center 1st floor Photos: Takumi Ota

Media center Media center Classroom 6th grade Open space 6th grade

Classroom 4th grade

Open space

Classroom 2nd grade

Open space 4th grade

Media open space/corridor

Media center

Media center

Top: w Bottom:

Sources

Cave, P. (2007) Primary School in Japan. USA and Canada: Routledge.

Chin, A. (2013) Kengo Kuma: Teikyo University Elementary School, Tokyo. Accessible from: https://www. designboom.com/architecture/kengo-kuma-teikyo-university-elementary-school-tokyo/ (Accessed: September 15th, 2017) Frearson, A (2013) Teikyo University Elementary School

by Kengo Kuma and Associates. Accessible from: https:// www.dezeen.com/2013/05/07/teikyo-university-elementary-school-by-kengo-kuma/ (Accessed: September 15th, 2017) Kengo Kuma Architects. Accessible from: http://kkaa.co.jp/works/architecture/teikyo-university-elementary-school/ (Accessed: September 15th, 2017) Kiran, K. (2013) Aksjeselskap, Store Norske Leksikon.

Accessible from: https://snl.no/Arkitektur_i_Japan (Accessed: September 15th 2017) Pallister, J. (2014) Kengo Kuma urges architects to be humble. Accessible from: https://www.dezeen.com/2014/03/11/kengo-kuma-interview-architecture-after-2011-japan-tsunami/ (Accessed: September 4th, 2017) Sandal, N., Thune, S. & Welle-Strand, A. (2013) Aksjeselskap, Store Norske Leksikon. Accessible from: https://snl. no/Skole_og_utdanning_i_Japan (Accessed: September 15th 2017) Shinichiro, M. (2014) Wood the Material of Choice at Schools. Accessible from: (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/ news/2014/02/05/national/wood-the-material-of-choiceat-schools/#.WcOEP0pL9E4) (Accessed: September 4th, 2017) Sumner, Y. (2013) School in Tama, Tokyo by Kengo Kuma. Accessible from: https://www.architectural-review.com/today/school-intama-tokto-by-kengo-kuma/8644568.article (Accessed: September 4th, 2017)