Learning Spaces – the Environment as the Third Teacher. Part 3
HOW ARCHITECTURE CAN SUPPORT MODERN EDUCATIONAL METHODS.
In building the new German School campus in Yangpu, headmaster Sven Heineken was given the opportunity to design a school building based on the shifting demands of modern teaching techniques. VIRTUARCH supported him in the project’s development and implementation phases. To commemorate the one-year anniversary of its opening, Sven Heineken met Daniel Heusser onsite to discuss lessons learned, success factors and takeaways from the project. Read the third part of the three-part series.
“Our Labs have a ceiling-based water and power supply. It renders us extremely flexible”
Daniel
We defined a flexible room concept for the science rooms. What impact did this have on the everyday use of these science labs?
Sven
A very positive one. Our Science Labs are at university-level and very versatile. The rooms are all fully WiFi enabled, with a ceiling-based water and power supply. The latter allows for a tremendous versatility in room set-up, which can be configured quickly and easily. For example, we can transition from a classic forward-facing set-up to a horseshoe desk layout when working on group projects. The chemistry and biology Labs even have mobile basins, enabling pupils to create their own work station depending on their current needs. Conventional science rooms have a floor mounted power supply and may even have fixed tables. This is very restrictive and not conducive to modern teaching methods.
Daniel
The concept is not only flexible, but also efficient in terms of the space needed. The layout of a standard science classroom can get in the way of effective group work, which is a problem when the tables are floor-mounted and can’t be rearranged. Where space isn’t an issue, a hybrid system can be used to create separate zones. For example, we designed a lab for the Tianjin International School with fixed lab tables in one zone and a flexible teaching area in the other zone of the same science room. The science room was very generous as a consequence, taking up almost twice the space of the science labs here. The science rooms of the German School Yangpu is much more efficient in terms of space, which came at the price of a higher investment cost in the laboratory equipment.
“We had to rethink our teaching and digitize our lessons almost overnight”
Daniel
What have been the biggest changes to teaching methods and the learning process during your seven-year tenure?
Sven
Last year was marked by the long school-closure, where we had to completely rethink our way of teaching lessons. Covid-19 resulted in a four-month e-learning period. As a result, we gained a lot of experience with learning-management portals and platforms to assist teaching. We are now in the process of integrating this experience to enhance everyday school life and learning. For example, this school year we equipped all students above grade five with their own e-device, which they can take home. Essentially that means a full switch to digitization of content, though we are aware that there is a fundamental pedagogical difference between e-learning from home and incorporating the use of e-devices into a school setting and that certain aspects will have to be re-imagined.
Daniel
Are you referring to something specific? Do you have any examples?
Sven
Screen time is the keyword. How much time should pupils really be spending in front of a screen – not the whole day, obviously. So that then leads to questions on when a computer is a tool to advance learning, where it can be used to document the learning process, and where does it further communication? The last point in particular is where I see the untapped potential of electronic devices – their use in facilitating networked projects. This could for example allow us to work on joint teaching projects with the Hongqiao campus, where the same devices are used, without needing the pupils to be physically in the same location.
Daniel
We can already see the effect on how school buildings are used. This rapid change is fascinating, and it further underlines how well-planned school buildings can help facilitate such changes or even shape them.
Sven
For our teacher training day on 4th February 2020 we had organized two professors and three assistants from Germany to come and discuss the topic ‘the environment as a third teacher’. It revolved around open plan concepts and the role of architecture in learning. Unfortunately, the event had to be cancelled due to Covid-19, but we continued to think about the basic idea of individualized, pupil-orientated teaching and planning. We are no longer acting in an analogue space, we are moving in a digital space too. That’s a very exciting concept. We don’t just want a nice building with some computers. We want to achieve an individualized and need-driven learning process in order to support and challenge our pupils based on their personal strengths and weaknesses. Architecture is a part of this necessary shift towards the digital space. While the pupils become less dependent on classroom settings as a result of their e-devices, the architecture surrounding the classroom becomes increasingly important. We have to consider how we can break open the classic structures in order to allow pupils to find their own learning space and path.
Daniel
What you’re describing boils down to an evolution of what had already taken place in the classroom. Covid-19 only fanned the flames of embers that had long been burning. The increasingly popular idea of ‘break-away zones’ and safe spaces are taken to an extreme in a scenario where pupils are learning from home, connected to their classmates and teachers via digital media. Libraries are also used differently today. It’s a very interesting topic that will see further development over the next few years.
Sven
And it is reinforced by the use of digital devices. With all the advantages and disadvantages that come with it.
“In the new school we have achieved a lot of what we would have liked to have had in the old school”
Daniel
In the concept phase of the project, we spent a lot of time discussing what you as an educator expect from a purpose built school. Implementing the cluster principle, you have considerably more space at your disposal, share a much larger canteen with the French School, and have a large gymnasium. Much has changed, what has been the effect?
Sven
The effect has been very positive. The canteen alone represents a quantum leap compared to Pudong, where we only had a small facility and could not really cook on-site. As a result, the food is much fresher and we have between six and seven options ranging from Italian and Asian food to vegetarian options and a ‘Chefs Table’. Even the canteen is far more appealing, it’s been fantastic.
The gym too, is a world away from the old campus. On the old campus we had a small gymnasium with a low ceiling. Now we boast two full courts with a high ceiling; you now can play volleyball. For financial reasons we have unfortunately not yet fitted out the swimming pool. It has been postponed to the second phase along with the theatre and the music and art rooms encompassing it.
Daniel
They will come in time, as you grow. Tell me, while planning the school, many questions were raised about how best to cooperate with the French school – what to do together, where to go alone. How has this developed?
Sven
It has actually worked very well despite our independent organizational structures. We don’t share the same time table, meaning we have different break times. Having two buildings is resulting in a calmer routine for both sides than in the Hongqiao campus. We have seminars where we are joined by French students and vice versa; this works out perfectly in the afternoons. That said, there is still plenty of room to increase our interaction. Joint lunches have partly been impossible due to Corona restrictions, which means we have to keep student numbers down in the canteen. On the whole, I think it is a pity that the pupils from the two schools don’t get to spend more time together during the course of a normal school day.
Our location is a factor in this. Few pupils currently live near our campus. At the end of the day, they board a bus and the school is more or less empty by 5pm. That is not the case for schools such as Hongqiao, surrounded by residential areas where pupils can make their own way home and are thus more flexible to use the school facilities for out of hours projects – again allowing for more interaction. We hope this will develop in Yangpu too as more families choose to live here, perhaps attracted by the leafy green surroundings.
Daniel
Yangpu is one of the few schools to have an underground bus parking lot and drop-off zone. Has this proven worthwhile?
Sven
Absolutely, though it’s already becoming too small with 53 buses now parked there every day. Our catchment area is spread across Shanghai and a number of smaller buses with additional unforeseen routes have been added to better accommodate our pupils. They currently park in a second row. On the whole the system works very well though: on arrival the pupils use a covered sidewalk to access the school. They don’t need to cross a road, there is no car traffic in this area. It is completely safe.
Daniel
Was there anything that did not live up to expectations? Have you been able to identify areas of untapped potential?
Sven
In all honesty – everything we wanted has been realized, with the exception of the yet to be completed areas. When I look at the plans for the full expansion, I feel confident that we will achieve the ambitious goals we set ourselves.
Daniel
As a closing thought, what is your favorite place in the school?
Sven
The atrium in the Secondary School is a marvelous room, however architecturally my favorite place is the main stairwell near the schools’ administrative area. It’s a sculptural piece that reminds me of a modern art museum. I find it aesthetically beautiful, inviting and well-composed. You can look through the entire building from that stairwell, see people going up and down the stairs throughout the building, or crossing the Foyer. It shows that the building is alive – and that makes it my favorite place.
Daniel
Sven, thank you very much for taking the time for this conversation.
Sven Heineken completed his teaching degree in music and physics at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. Following practical teacher training in Frankfurt, Sven taught at the Otto Hahn secondary school, Springe and Viktoria Luise secondary school in Hameln before taking on the role of Deputy Headmaster at the Humboldt secondary school in Bad Pyrmont. In 2014, Sven became headmaster of the German School, Pudong. As part of this role, he was given the opportunity to plan and design a new school building in the Yangpu District, which opened to students in 2020. Sven will soon be returning to Germany, where he will become Principal of the Buxtehude-Süd secondary school, Buxtehude in August 2021.
Daniel Heusser studied architecture at the ETH Zurich and Southeast University in Nanjing. In 1994, he came to China to set up a Joint Venture for a Swiss architecture firm. Daniel has been in charge of the architecture and project management company VIRTUARCH since 2003. VIRTUARCH has offices in Shanghai, Bangkok, and Zurich and encompasses a team of 80. Daniel and his team have worked on over 120 school projects in China and Southeast Asia, including the Eurocampus projects in Shanghai, the German School Pudong, and school campuses for Dulwich in Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing, and Zhuhai, to name but a few.
The German School in Shanghai was founded in 1995. There are now two locations: the Eurocampus Hongqiao, opened in 2005 and the Eurocampus Yangpu, opened in 2020. Both schools are operated in conjunction with the French School. Sven Heineken has been headmaster of the German School Pudong (now known as the German School Yangpu) since 2014. As such, he was responsible for the expansion of the school in Pudong and the new campus in Yangpu. Daniel Heusser and his team oversaw the planning and project management of the various expansion steps in Pudong, acting as client representatives for the Eurocampus Hongqiao from 2003 to 2005 and for the Eurocampus Yangpu from 2015 to 2019.
