Crossboundaries was tasked with innovative thinking for the Pop-up Campus of Infinity 6 in Shenzhen, China.

Dubbed “INFINITY 6”, Crossboundaries’ pop up school takes an interlocked “X” shape, positioned on a 18x18m site. This idea ripples through the architects vision of future, where school extends beyond its walls and becomes an open, interactive space.

To summarize this vision, Crossboundaries tried to express it through six principles:

1. School should be a shared place of gathering, a hub and an incubator of social interaction that engages not only students and teachers but entire community.
2. The school should provide a richness in spatial experiences for children, blurring the separation between inside and outside, not only in context of space but also in terms of what kind of activities occur in these spaces. Classroom can spill out in the school yard or hallway or city and nature can be brought inside.
3. Providing a private space as an antidote to gathering is essential in offering a recluse, a place of calm and isolation that allows for individuality and encourages deep thinking.
4. Even a small effort in adding texture and color to the sensory palette of school exterior and interior, combined with kids’ unrestrained imagination can significantly expand and enrich the daily learning experiences.
5. Generous openings on the building façade can integrate the school with its surroundings by providing the glimpses into the school’s inner world and framing the interesting views of the city. The windows can extend their role further by becoming small reading niches that participate in the new dynamic way the learning can occur outside the classroom
6. Finally, the school should be conceived as a smart, evolving space that encourages interactivity, embraces unpredictability of skills that future will require and thrives on the notion of constant adaptation and change.

All the principles are embedded as small demos or previews; the four little plazas generated by the juxtaposition of the “X” shape on the square site, flanked with pairs of facades that resemble the pages of an open book, serve to demonstrate gathering, private space, inside-outside spatial play and adding texture and color principle. This school doesn’t imply conventional classroom as its measure word and a designated place of learning. Instead, it offers an entire learning landscape that spills out to the hallways, stairs, yards and ultimately the entire city.

Another, seemingly opposing trend that this pop-up school tries to tackle concerns modularization and prefabrication as a building method – a trend that has taken off in China last several years to keep up with the growing demand. Can a school be made out of modules and result in highly unique and inspiring spaces? This is the question that Crossboundaries grappled with in some of our recent school projects and that we aim to insist on moving forward, ensuring that the progressive teaching methods that encourage customized learning can go hand in hand with the time-saving, mass-produced modular building systems that are becoming increasingly attractive for investors.

Architect: Crossboundaries
Design Team: Marijana Simic, Cynthia Cui, HOU Jinghui, HAO Hongyi, GAO Yang
Photography: BAI Yu