07/07/2025
Redefining Nature, Artifice and Context
By: Chen Chen
The article is published #50, Autumn 2023
Chen is an architect and landscape urbanist.
She graduated in Architecture from Tsinghua University, mobtained a Master degree in Landscape Urbanism from the Architectural Association and completed a Master in Landscape Architecture at Harvard GSD, receiving the Jacob Weidenman Award, the highest design award of the year.
According to her perspective, the design of school campuses in China has been severely influenced in the past by examination-oriented education and focus on safety and efficiency.
The campuses are often isolated from society, separated by walls, and lack connection to the surrounding community.
Based on her own personal approach and observations, architect Chen seeks to emphasize the social aspect and public component of the future education typologies in design, informed by her understanding of the limitations of standard existing school campuses.
reMIX’s projects aim for a critical integration of architecture and landscape into a synthetic urban hybrid. As a female architect and mother, architect Chen believes that school buildings have a significant impact on students' lives and their understanding of the city, nature, and the environment.
“The territory has to be understood as a metabolic network, onto which the redefinition of the presupposed natural / artificial and local / global can depart; then the envisioning and construction of future social assemblages can finally take-off.”
Challenging the notion that school campuses should be isolated from the city and society, she suggests exploring options for increased interaction between schools and the community, questioning the current independent state of Chinese campuses. She considers the social contexts and creates connections with the larger urban environment.
Some projects: intelligent engaging paths, multifunctional corridors, and an integration of nature and outdoor learning into the school environment, allowing students to connect with plants, soil, and the surrounding environment.
