BAIKO GAKUIN UNIVERSITY “The Learning Station CROSSLIGHT”

Three-dimensional network structure as an extension of the city

Baiko Gakuin University’s new school building aims to provide a place for students to develop the capacity to think and the power to live. The campus in Shimonoseki-shi, Yamaguchi Prefecture is situated in an urban district on a complex terrain consisting of ridges and grooves. Considering the context in which the site is surrounded by other schools, a municipal gymnasium, and houses, we erased the boundary between the campus and the city and provided several entries accessible from multiple directions so that the new school building becomes a center of this community. Active learning spaces composed of three-dimensional network structures, where people’s circulation routes and multiple lines of sight interconnect in complex ways, connect directly with the existing urban fabric (as a microcosm of society) and create unprecedented new scenes in the learning environment.

Baiko Gakuin University’s horizontal campus originally had a large field in the center of the campus; with the completion of CROSSLIGHT, students would have no place to go outside. Therefore, as part of our initial proposal, we again proposed that the site after the demolition of the existing school building be developed into a central park.

Three years after the completion of CROSSLIGHT, this Central Park was completed. The design of Central Park is continuous, as if the grid of CROSSLIGHT were extended outside, creating a place where students can stand within the grid. In the future, we hope to remove the fence and extend the grid to the athletic field on the north side of the park, allowing students to come and go as they please.

Location

Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi

Year

2019