The first international school established in Beijing, International School of Beijing (ISB) is composed of approximately 1,650 students from Early Years 3 to Grade 12, representing around 50 countries. Although the original building, a 54,000-square-meter “super box” built around 20 years ago, successfully integrates the various departments under one roof, the over-unified spaces are unable to represent the diversity of students and learning programs that are critical to the curriculum innovation. Since 2017, the design team, in collaboration with educators and administrators, have implemented a proactive architectural approach to expand and transform this leading international school to the cutting edge of learning environment. Unlike most design that seeks centralization and integration, “Montage of Learning Communities” is a de-centralization and fragmenting approach that treats each small learning community within the school as an “image” independent and distinctive from one another and creates a refreshing montage of spaces within the existing architectural framework, superseding the over-unified, rigid “institution building” with a versatile, dynamic “education architecture”. As the pilot project to mobilize the whole school upgrade, the Phase One design consists of five small learning communities, each presented in different colors and placemaking adaptable to student ages and learning programs. These innovative spaces are expected to stimulate the whole school’s metabolism to continue evolving along with more emerging learning communities planted in. 01. Early Learning Community, based on Reggio Emilia approach, is planned as small, real worlds for children to explore. The little “town” is organized with a gradient of open to private spaces, from the central garden, beach, concert hall and gallery, surrounded with riverfront esplanade, picnic lawns, secret garden, to the townhouses at peripheral, all of which function as learning spaces conveyed in simple design vocabularies. 02. ES Arts Center is expressly designed for young artists and performers, the center of which is a 400-seat multifunctional theater, custom-designed to small human scale and to the highest performance hall acoustical standards. With theater mechanics, it can be switched into three modes including proscenium theater, vineyard theater and open hall. The pre-function hall also serves as exhibition and social space where parents wait for their children, a “soul” space for the greater community. 03. ES Library is designed as a WOW space to attract young readers and featured with the terraces remodeled from an existing stair, expressing the spiritual connotation of Chinese literati, “searching for a soulmate among high mountains and flowing water”. Filled with steps, soft seatings and “caves”, the library is children’s favorite paradise for individual reading and quiet times. 04. MS/HS Design Center, a centralized facility showcasing design, arts and entrepreneurship, is planned around the Collaborative Space which is practically a super workshop with flexibility to divide to 5 enclosed or semi-closed studios in various sizes, surrounded by variety of “resource” rooms to facilitate trans-disciplinary and project-based learning programs. The “Gallery of Tomorrow” at the front entrance turns out to be the most popular social and performing space in secondary school. 05. MS/HS Performing Arts Center is becoming the largest secondary school performing arts community in Beijing. It is planned in a unique layout with common spaces adjacent to exterior envelop and receiving direct daylight while most music practice rooms at the back end. The shell shape of Orchestra Room, constructed with triangular panels, is derived from the ideal acoustic model that optimizes the reverberation coefficient to maximize the original and primary reflective sound, the highest acoustical standards for an orchestra room.   Design highlights 01. A pioneering and proactive approach for regeneration Unlike most interior design that seeks a centralized, unified concept, the design for International School of Beijing is an avant-guard approach that DE-CENTRALIZES the learning spaces in one building, empowered with drastically different learning communities. The design intent is not only to transform the existing over-unified intuition building to a dynamic education architecture, but also to represent the vast diversity of students and curriculums, the core spirit of this leading international school. 02. Dynamic and inspiring learning environment Inspired with motion picture montage technique, “Montage of Learning Communities” treats each small learning community within the school as an “image” independent and drastically distinctive from one another and creates a refreshing montage of spaces within the existing architectural framework. Students and teachers will have a motion-picture feel of “walking within changing scenes”. To activate the whole’s metabolism, each learning community includes at least one eye-catching, photogenic learning center as the “soul” space of the community. These vibrant social spaces are expected to trigger a new order of learning environment towards future of education. 03. Open, adaptable and inclusive learning communities Highly open and adaptable, all learning spaces are equipped to be instantly re-configured to meet the ever-changing learning requirements. Variety of flexible partitions including folding doors, movable panels and overhead doors are utilized to facilitate the changes. For example, Collaborative Space in MS/HS Design Center is practically a super workshop with flexibility to divide to 5 enclosed or semi-closed studios in various sizes. The ES theater, like a magic box, can be switched with mechanics into a proscenium theater, a vineyard theater or an open hall to support formal performances, assemblies, rehearsals and all other activities in the elementary school. The openness and adaptability empower the spaces to nurture all learners, regardless of their genders, ages, cultural and academic backgrounds, preferred learning methods and health conditions, the inclusivity of which is the key to learner-centered environment. 04. Environmental-friendly, cost-effective and low-maintenance Environmental-friendly, cost-effective and low-maintenance materials are selected for the building’s lifelong value. Low eaves, small fenestrations, simple forms, modest access colors and large quantity of wood and concrete finishes are utilized to create natural and relaxing ambience, counterbalancing the existing solemn environment. All tangible surfaces are resilient and easy to clean. The multi-use and maximum flexibility of learning spaces will tremendously reduce the renovation that has to be done due to future curriculum changes. 05. Successful collaboration between designers and educators The project consists of 5 learning communities including Early Learning Community, ES Arts Center, ES Library, MS/HS Design Center and MS/HS Performing Arts Center, each represented by different educators and students, with whom the design team worked closely to establish design strategies together. The collaboration was successful with tools of questionnaires, focus group discussion, design charrette, and etc. The designers even worked with kindergartners to observe their feedbacks. With the effort of all stakeholders, the school activities did not pause for a single day during the 3-year construction of expansion and renovation.