PINGOD School in A Li, Tibet

Architect: Wanghui

A Li, located in the west of Tibet with a distance of 1600kilometers from Lhasa and its average height is over 4500 meters above sea-level. Tibet is the ridge of the world, and A Li is the ridge of Tibet. Its unique scenery of plateau attracted countless explorers to conquer it. A Li PINGOD Primary School is located at the foot of Shen Mountain in Alipulan county in A Li and its height is near 5000 meters above sea-level, we can say it’s the highest school in the world.
Architect Wanghui .tried to build a modern building which can fit to the environment with the world best environmental resources. Extending to the design of A Li PINGOD School, he thought the best way to help children is to do works with heart, and expect children to love his work.
The fund comes from PINGOD foundation and the school is in use now.

Design:

The total area of the school is about 2000 square meters which can accommodate 240 students, many quadrate building units connected to each other and became an architectural complex. The terrain there is covered by cobblestones, therefore, cobblestones are the only material for the building use. Considered the factors of the environmental protection and durability, cobblestones are largely used in this project. Besides the flat cemented roof and glass screen wall used of solar energy, the walls and floors are all made in cobblestones.
The Hope School is located in a valley and the windy day there is more than 150 days every year. Therefore, the building orientation and arrangement became a tough work with the shortage of nature weather resources.
Wanghui’s design inspiration comes from a trip to Venice, once he wandered on a bridge and there was a traffic jam on the canal, he saw many boats ware lying along the river, this gave him a tip to solve the problem. In Tibet, many local constructions are constituted by rectangular compounds one by one, and the height and intervals of the compounds are depending on the windy environment there.
The basic idea of the design is to make arrangement of some walls, just like the order of boats in the rival. The architect stacked a cobblestone wall to prevent the wind, and this has avoided the trouble in transporting materials. These walls are arranged in certain distance, so that the wind could be stopped by the walls. The common terrain was changed to a terrain with visual density lush spaces by the walls. Sunshine and wind direction are most important factors of the primary school’s environment. In the school you can see the mountain at any places. The walls formed polylines along with the changes of the terrain, which will guide people’s eyesight to the snow-crested Shen Mountain.
The south wall of the school is painted by teachers and students which shows the modern feature of Tibet architecture. The double-glazing wall set in the colorful pillar is a solar heating system. In such an area without electricity, energy conservation and environmental protection are very important.
The large use of cobblestones in the building makes the building look like growing in the environment. Meanwhile, the active children also need an interesting space. Therefore, the cobblestones have been used to make paddles which move ups and downs between each compound. This provides a natural playground for the children. Even in cold winter under a temperature of -20C°， children still like playing outside and reading books under the sunshine. These cobblestones just satisfied their requirements. “Climbing up the house and pulling across the wall” will become a part of their study lives.

Architect

Wanghui, a famous young architect. He was born in 1969 in Xi’an, Shanxi Province and graduated in Northwest Polytechnical University. He has worked as an assistant to professor. Zhang Yaozeng in architecture at the N.P.U., and also worked as part-time lecturer in research centre of Architecture at Peking University.

Main participating exhibitions

2004 Shanghai Biennale(Shanghai)
2004 8 Young Architects Exhibition
2004 China Biennale(ART)
2003 China International Housing and Architect Fair (CIHAF)HE EATABLE HOUSE
2003 Exhibition of Contemporary Art
2003“LEFT WING” Exhibition of Contemporary Art (BEIJING)

Main projects:

Peking University; Mina Cafee in Yuanmingyuan; Changping villa in Beijing; PINGOD commercial street of courtyards in China; Patten Mix-used Building In Beijing; Rosebush Villa In Guangdong; PINGOD school in TIBET