PUTUO SHANGXUE LEARNING CENTER

The original street frontage was cold and noisy, its rooms closed off by load-bearing cross walls. The renovation lets space flow and gives the street edge a warmth that comforts and even shelters passers-by, turning it into a shared, multipurpose place to study. Three materials, bamboo-wood, board-formed concrete and glass brick, remake the facade into an elegant, warm setting. Perspectival windows framed in bamboo-wood give the elevation depth, shaping seven openings to look into, to sit in and to enter, so the street wall becomes human-scaled urban furniture that holds people at rest and offers a sense of safety. At night those seven windows read as seven lanterns kept burning, guiding people hurrying home. The project was shown at the Shanghai Urban Space Art Season and the China Design Exhibition of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.