The school for 120 children aged three to twelve is designed for residents of a dozen villages with a total population of 1,800 in Jiangxi province in southeastern China. Its founder is the architect and painter Jingan Yu, the owner of the country's first interior design bureau, which today has more than 2,000 branches in more than half a thousand cities in the PRC. He also runs the Jiangxi College of Art. Opening a rural school, Jingan Yu decided to give the children of his fellow countrymen the opportunity to receive a quality education in an appropriate architectural environment. According to him, the curriculum will combine the state standard with a variety of artistic subjects borrowed from the British school system. It is planned to use the latest achievements of Internet learning and involve invited teachers and artists. Lushan high school graduates will then be able to continue their education at any high school in China.
The building will be built over the river, on a small "peninsula": its level has been artificially increased by five meters above the flood level over the past 50 years. In addition, the open-air "classrooms" and sports grounds surrounding the school will become a protective zone.
The complex will include, in addition to the school itself, a hostel and ancillary buildings. All of them will be covered with parabolic and semicircular vaults, which will simultaneously serve as a supporting and enclosing structure. Their openings frame picturesque landscapes around; the orientation of the building allows an optimal amount of light to penetrate inside, while protecting the interior from the heat of the sun with roof outlets: Jiangxi has a subtropical climate. The outer surfaces will be covered with tiles of different tones, so that the colors indicate the function of a particular case: this decor is associated with the history of the province, where high-quality ceramics have been made from the Ming Dynasty.
To save time and money during construction, parts of the building will, if possible, be produced locally, rather than being transported to a distant village from afar. Local workers know how to pour concrete, and the polystyrene formwork necessary for the vaults is planned to be cut using robots armed with thermal cutters. The modularity of the vaults will allow the formwork to be reused.
