Competition Date: 2010
Square Footage: 192,000

The design of the Shanghai High School results from a true understanding of the unique issues of program and place. The school site is located along the flowing waters of the Chuanyang River. Students who attend this school walk on paths parallel to the river that converge and blend like the river as they flow between the classroom branches.

Three floors of classrooms face south and allow the maximum amount of sunlight into the building. The classrooms are shaded by a terra cotta screen that filters direct sunlight as it enters into the rooms. A rain garden rests between the two academic wings collecting rainwater from the roofs of the building and slowly filtering it through a natural landscape ending at the banks of the Sunjiazhai River. The planned school welcomes both school and community with rooftop athletic courts and an interior school garden.