The Bridge by DLC

DLC: The Bridge is not solely a building; it is a school that values character education, science and aesthetics, and is an innovative community education base. The landscape environment created helps the students not only to connect with the classroom, but also helps to integrate personality and commonality. Central to their success is a physical environment which encourages collaboration and community as well as support for their academic work.

The Bridge Experiment focuses on providing students with a universal education that places emphasis on liberal arts and character cultivation. Here, education is integrated with life, such that learning not only serves as a goal, but is also recognized as an innate ability and the embodiment of an enhanced lifestyle. During the learning experience, students gradually build up their understanding of the world through their interactions with people and social space, simultaneously becoming a part of a close-knit learning community of educators and students. The result is a place where educators and students together can explore their minds and elevate their lives.

With its prominent site adjacent to two of Shanghai’s principal connections to the Pudong Shanghai International Airport, and centered within the Pudong Science and Technology park, the “Benevolent Bridge” breaks conventional educational barriers by providing future planning and nourishment of hope while simultaneously creating an innovative, memorable and humane place to study and learn. The more a student’s imagination is challenged, the more invested they become in the learning process. Outdoor classroom environments from kindergarten through university are becoming a central ‘learning by doing’ tool when understanding that most activities that can be done indoors can be done outdoors.

As designers we consider the outdoor classroom as a living laboratory for all levels of education. A beautiful tree can become a source of inspiration in art class, sustainable storm water systems the basis for a science lesson and a series of boulders the starting point for a math problem. The outdoor curriculum changes with a student’s evolving needs and interests; from dynamic spaces of color, light, scale, interconnectivity and the element of surprise among young children, to a slightly less saturated setting of color and graphic quality when developing one’s mind and craft in university spaces.

Surrounded by an existing water body, the Bridge is uniquely positioned to be an example of innovation in storm water management by utilizing this resource for education, recreation and beauty. Students are brought together to deliberate and converse in shared spaces grounded in the image of a campus dedicated to sustainability and the beauty of the landscape; designing a sustainable landscape expresses the mission of this great institution and is an educational demonstration of the learning and creativity to which the institution is committed.