Press Release
Silver A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Goes to Learning Landscape Primary School by People's Architecture Office
The international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes People's Architecture Office for architecture, building and structure design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 18, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category for Learning Landscape Primary School by People's Architecture Office, designed for People's Architecture Office (PAO). The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Silver A' Design Award Means
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
Regarding Learning Landscape Primary School
Learning Landscape is a primary school in Shenzhen, China. The school covers 20,535 square meters and replaces the rigid classroom and corridor layout with connected indoor and outdoor spaces. Three elements inspired by nature, named the Mountain, the Valley and the Beach, organize the terraced levels. Students move freely between classrooms, covered areas, green roofs and open interstitial spaces. Planting across the whole site gives shade and reduces heat. The design supports lessons, group work, play and quiet study.
About People's Architecture Office
Beijing-based People's Architecture Office (PAO) / People's Industrial Design Office (PIDO) was founded by He Zhe, James Shen and Zang Feng in 2010, and consists of a multi-disciplinary team of architects, engineers, product designers and urbanists. With the belief that design is for the masses the studio focuses on social impact through design. PAO is the first architecture practice in Asia certified as a B-Corporation and serves as a model for social entrepreneurship.
Award Record
With this recognition, People's Architecture Office is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award
The A' Architecture Design Award is an international architectural design competition recognizing good architectural designs by best architects worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to architectural design studios, building contractors, structural engineering firms and architecture and design consultants from all countries. Typical entries include skyscrapers, museums, residential buildings, commercial complexes, educational institutions and religious structures. The awarded architectural projects are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/architecture
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/182106
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/182106
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!182106
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/379321
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://www.archdaily.com/1037615/wuzhou-elementary-school-p
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Learning Landscape Primary School
- Function
- Primary School
- Category
- Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture
- Colors
- Dark Gray, Dark Slate Gray, Rosy Brown, Tan and Light Blue
- Images
- 5
- Client
- People's Architecture Office (PAO)
The Recognition
- Laureate
- People's Architecture Office
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #182106
Credits
- Team
- He Zhe, James Shen, Zang Feng and Li Zhenghua, Kim Dahyun, Xu Jialing, Yang Qian, Wang Dawei, Wang He, Li Qiuwan, Zhang Yichen, Li Zhenghua, Wang Chengchen, Yuan Yingying, Luo Qinming, Jiang Ying, Hu Zhi'an, Lin Mingkai, Wang Guyixin，Guo Mingran，Xu Huihang
- Image Credits
- Main image-North courtyard night ©Zhu Yumeng #1-Looking towards the natural park from south to north ©Zhu Yumeng #2-Entrance mount ©Zhu Yumeng #3-Southwest corner street scene @Zhu Yumeng #4-Library ©Zhu Yumeng
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Wuzhou Elementary School is a 20,535 sqm three-dimensional Learning Landscape in Shenzhen, redefining primary education space with a student-centered, exploration-driven design that abandons rigid classroom-corridor layouts. Structured around three iconic natural landscape-inspired elements—the Mountain, Valley and Beach—it features gradient, interconnected indoor-outdoor spaces blurring interior-exterior boundaries, enabling diverse learning modes from formal classes to open play and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
- Inspiration
- Inspired by Shenzhen’s shift to an innovation-driven economy, we sought to reimagine elementary education spaces by breaking the rigid classroom-centric paradigm of traditional schools. Drawing on the organic diversity of natural landscapes, we created a three-dimensional Learning Landscape to prioritize student-centered creativity, play and hands-on exploration, aligning educational space with the needs of a new era.
- Research
- Against Shenzhen’s innovation-driven urban shift and the demand for student-centered education, this applied design research explores integrating innovative educational concepts with urban campus architecture. It combines qualitative analysis of global educational space cases, quantitative research on local primary school learning needs, and participatory discussions with educators, students and experts, using field surveys, interviews and spatial simulation tools for data collection.
- Challenge
- The core challenge was reconciling three critical demands: redefining rigid traditional educational spatial logic to fit student-centered exploratory learning, integrating natural landscape design with architectural functionality in Shenzhen’s dense urban core, and balancing creative spatial form with structural feasibility and tropical climate adaptability. Externally, we faced constraints of urban land use regulations, the need to mitigate the urban heat island effect from surrounding commercial development, and technical limits to realizing large-scale indoor-outdoor boundary blurring.
- Realization and Technology
- The project adopts a landscape urbanism design methodology, integrating architectural spatial planning with landscape engineering to construct a three-dimensional Learning Landscape. Stepped terrain construction technology is applied to the Mountain, Valley and Beach core nodes, realizing vertical circulation and multi-functional terracing for seating/performances. Green infrastructure integration techniques are employed for full-site vegetation deployment, combining tropical climate-adaptive plant species selection with green roof engineering to achieve passive cooling, pollution filtration and urban heat island mitigation.
- Operation and Interaction
- Wuzhou Elementary School operates as a flexible, student-led learning ecosystem with fluid spatial flow that eliminates fixed classroom-corridor boundaries. Students move freely between indoor classrooms and outdoor covered areas, Mountain/Valley/Beach zones, and open interstitial spaces, switching seamlessly between formal learning, group collaboration, hands-on play and nature exploration. The terraced landscapes and undulating terrain act as natural gathering spots for informal exchanges, while the connected green roofs, library and sports facilities create a continuous vertical learning path.
- Project Duration and Location
- Location: Shenzhen, China Time: 2020–2025
- Specifications
- Building Area: 20,535 square meters Site Area: 7820 square meters Height Limit: 24 m Floor Area Ratio (FAR) : 2.11
- Keywords
- education, primary school, learning landscape
