As a new extension of the existing Nanyang Primary School and Kindergarten in Singapore, this design developed an internal public ‘valley’ that is open to the elements and sky, but removes the emphasis from the surrounding residential streets. This project has the objective of placing the school’s communal space at the heart of the design.

Part of the existing Nanyang Primary School’s campus, namely the hilltop buildings and the Coronation Road entrance buildings, had been reserved for demolition under the brief as they no longer provided an environment up to modern teaching standards. Behind this building, the steep slopes were exposed or bridged over, creating unusable and unsightly space pockets that were difficult to integrate. These unusable spaces were out of proportion and character with a child’s world, created the starting point of our thinking for the new design. Very quickly it became clear that the new concept would have to be centred on a generous, open and usable communal space that draws advantages from the site’s inherent topography.