Schools are meant to be places that stimulate, invigorate, and engage students. On some occasion, they can be awe-inspiring, too. Amazingly designed schools can be found all around the world — from Australia to Alabama, Denmark to Cambodia. Some are designed to resist natural disasters, while others provide first-rate education to the underprivileged.
Here are some of our favorites:
1. OA Kindergarten: Saitama, Japan
OA Kindergarten, located in Saitama, Japan, is built uniquely to withstand any earthquake. It’s made almost entirely of shipping containers to make the school as stable as possible.
2. Makoko Floating School: Makoko, Nigeria
In Makoko, Dutch architects NLE have shaped a simple, yet beautiful timber school floating among lagoon houses.
3. The Hive, Nanyang Technological University: Jurong West, Singapore
Designed by British designer Thomas Heatherwick, The Hive is Heatherwick Studio’s first major building in Asia. The building consists of 12 eight-storey towers arranged around a public atrium. The towers taper towards the base and house 56 corner-less classrooms. The concrete stair and lift cores between the towers are embedded with 700 drawings from British artist Sara Fanelli that depict images from science, art and literature.
4. Santa Catalina School: Monterey, California
Characterized by its 36-acre, hacienda-style campus, the Santa Catalina School is a private Catholic school that was founded in 1950. Located on the Monterey Peninsula, the school is a stone’s throw from breathtaking, coastal scenery. Santa Catalina is divided into an upper school, which is an all-girls day and boarding school, and a lower school that serves girls and boys from preschool through eighth grade.
5. Hanazono Kindergarten and Nursery: Miyakojima, Japan
Designed by Hibinosekkei and Youji no Shiro, the Hanazono Kindergarten and Nursery in Japan was named a finalist at the 2016 World Architecture Festival. Its breezy, wood-constructed classrooms that feed into the outside have become a trendy school design in Japan. The flexibility lets kids easily move from playtime to more formal instruction.
6. Helsinki International Schools, HEI Schools: Bangkok, Thailand
Helsinki International Schools, HEI Schools is award-winning international kindergarten from Finland, HEI Bangkok is located on Sukhumvit rd. which is a CBD of Bangkok, HEI is designed by following the concept of Nature creating imagination. Scandinavian language is employed not only in Architecture but also in Interior space and decoration. HEI learning space is designed to provoke children’s creativities, there is a big single space which can divide into 4 spaces by using a movable partition, in addition, leaning space is wrapped by a transparent wall. Moreover, a skylight is designed to allow natural light to come into the space and construct children’s sense of vision and sense of color.
