Teaching Building of Suzhou Mountain Bilingual School

The teaching building of Moutain School, located in Suzhou, China, is a single building with a 200-meter-long courtyard. It is straightforward and simple. It has strong infrastructure characteristics, and it is both functional and public. The super-long buildings, natural courtyards, and repeated components remind us of the feeling in the Central Institute of Sciences of the University of Brasilia designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Due to the location and scale of the teaching building, it is actually difficult to see the overall image. Only by approaching and walking into the interior to experience its characteristics, just like watching a traditional Chinese long scroll painting, it needs to be unfolded slowly and time is used to experience the space. The interior space of the "long scroll" is divided into three courtyards, which enhances the sense of identity between teachers and students of different grades. We set up two nodes in the courtyard, which are translated from artificial mountain in Suzhou gardens. These nodes are also non-functional places for teachers and students to communicate, rest and think. The scattered spaces, staggered forms, and winding stairs give people an interesting experience of climbing the "rockery", just like the experiences in Suzhou Gardens. The "long scroll" and "artificial mountain" are also a metaphor for the design to respond to regional culture.