Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Nordic Architecture & Design – Denmark
The 19,000-square-metre hi-tech zone school in Chengdu merges Nordic architecture, Danish pedagogy and Chinese culture. The design of the school incorporates many of RUM’s core values such as user involvement and social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Sharing spaces – saving resources A perforated school wall in China, tables on the ceiling, and a continuously changing mosaic wall − Scan Magazine talks to Horsens-located architecture practice RUM, about the firm’s exciting new projects at home and abroad.
by RUM: others include a new school in Sorø and a shared learning facility in Silkeborg.
By Signe Hansen | Photos: Jakob Lerche and Rune Fjord
Sharing and safekeeping
Having just finished a new primary school in Chengdu, China, RUM has had the firm’s well-established methods tested in the eyes of a new and different clientele. The design of the school incorporates many of RUM’s core values such as user involvement and social, economic and environmental sustainability. “At RUM, we have worked with user processes long before it became common. It’s an approach to architecture which is deeply anchored in our roots, and it’s an approach which might make us a bit different from other firms,” says Elbek. 52 | Issue 117 | October 2018
“It’s not that we don’t prioritise the aesthetic expression of a building, but we add depth to it by working with the users and ensuring that the functional value matches the aesthetic value.” In Chengdu, the result of this process is a distinct 19,000-square-metre starshaped school and a 2,400-squaremetre kindergarten merging Nordic architecture, Danish pedagogy and Chinese culture. The school, which is officially inaugurated on 25 October, is just one of many learning facilities designed
Traditionally, schools in Denmark act as culture and community centres hosting multiple organisations and events outside school hours. To enable that, RUM often works with a number of practical and creative design features to alleviate security concerns, something which became vital at the hi-tech zone school in Chengdu. “One of the points which proved to be the biggest, but also most interesting challenge, was defining the degree of openness we could design into the school. Often, a Chinese school has a school wall and a guarded gate which means you can’t enter unless you’re a