A boarding school has been likened to 'Black Mirror' and even has a dedicated “de-stress” zone for kids being brainwashed.
"Free-thinking" Huizhen High School in Ningbo, Zhejiang province in China, has been deemed the “world’s best building” and includes facilities for students to “waste time mindfully”. It is set on a serene campus with an immaculate football pitch and winding outdoor staircases.
It is meant to blur the line between indoor and outdoor spaces with sleek modern designs and building shapes. Pathways are lined with trees, the school is seemingly idyllic – despite having 30 classes.
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There is even an open-air lecture hall and its elevated walkways have been dubbed a "floating forest". The remarkable design was conceived by the Zhejiang University of Technology Engineering Design Group and Approach Design Studio.
The design firm said that a campus should inspire free thinking and should let students “release stress, adjust their body and mind and discover beauty”.
It claimed the lofty title of 2023's World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) held in Singapore. To earn the accolade it had to beat 250 other projects on the shortlist.
Chinese Premier Xi Jinping is currently pushing forward with ambitions to make China technologically self-reliant and education is at the heart of that. According to the South China Morning Post, Xi is also trying to use a heightened quality of education to attract more international students.
He also reiterated the importance of educating on ideology to ensure that young people always “listen to the party”. Xi said: “[We must] focus on strengthening the education of socialist core values, guide students to establish firm ideals and beliefs, always listen to the party and follow the party, and devote themselves to the country and the people.”
He has also stated his desire to bolster China’s higher education system. “[We should] dynamically adjust and optimise the disciplines of higher education [and] train urgently needed strategic talents in a targeted manner,” he said.
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