2 Optimization of grey space design strategy for elementary school in old city of Hangzhou
2.1 Analysis of existing strategies
2.1.1 Optimization of Design Strategies Based on Gray Space in Old Town Elementary Schools
2.1.1.1 Off-grounding of playgrounds
Longjiang Foreign Language Affiliated Primary School, in order to meet the demand for teaching and learning after the renovation of the campus in the absence of land for expansion in the surrounding area, the designer, Vertical Beam Society (VBS), chose to expand the space vertically by lifting the sports field, which was originally on the ground level, up by 4.65m, and the space underneath the sports field formed an elevated space capable of providing interaction for the students to study and learn.
2.1.1.2 Stereoscopic platforms
For Xinzhou Primary School in Futian District, Shenzhen, in order to accommodate the increase in the number of students and to provide a place for inter-class interactions, Dongyi Architecture retained the original building's double-courtyard layout and enlarged the courtyards, constructing platforms and connecting staircases between the different floors to make the vertical space more coherent and to increase the possibility of interaction and learning between the students. At the same time, more gray space is created between the platforms.
2.1.1.3 Block stacking
Badiner Primary School, surrounded by public buildings, is in a tight space. In order to meet the needs of teaching and learning, the designers stacked three blocks on top of the original building, and the staggered gaps in the blocks create a gray space that promotes student interaction and learning.
2.1.1.4 Plug-ins
At the Long Jiang Urban Center Elementary School, the Vertical Beam Society building uses lightweight metal frames to create open grey space in order to meet the needs of students to interact and learn without major demolition or alteration of the building.
2.1.2 Design strategies to promote engaged learning
2.1.2.1 Learning Streets for Corridor Spaces
The learning streetification of the grey space of the corridor refers to the widening of the original traffic corridor space to accommodate traffic while reserving space where interactive learning can occur.
2.1.2.2 Combination of gray space and steps
The combination of gray space and steps is a means to effectively stimulate students to interact and learn. According to Herzberg, steps not only functionally meet the needs of vertical transportation, but also provide a good place for students to interact in their daily lives on campus.
2.1.2.3 Gray space quality improvement
In Interaction and Space, Gayle Young categorizes activities into three types: necessity, spontaneity, and social activities. Spontaneous activities require the highest quality of the physical environment, and the high quality of the spatial environment is more likely to allow people to engage in behaviors that promote interaction, such as stopping, resting, and playing; interaction and learning among students is more of a subjective and spontaneous process, so the higher the spatial quality of the grey space, the more it can promote the occurrence of interaction and learning.
2.1.2.3 Gray space gamification
Playful behavior is the nature of elementary school students, and as play occurs, so does interaction. Claire Cooper Marcus in Human Places says that play is the primary vehicle for early learning and development of the individual, and that the playing of games facilitates the occurrence of interactions between students, while at the same time enhancing the skills of learning through interactions.
2.2 Principles of gray space design for elementary school in the old city of Hangzhou
2.2.1 Lightweight design principles
In the elementary school in the old city of Hangzhou, the design optimization should follow the principle of lightweighting, leaving the original structure unchanged as much as possible, with only minor local expansions and plug-in placements. This reduces the impact on the surrounding community and transforms the gray space at the lowest cost.
2.2.2 Principle of enhanced stayability
Interactional learning behaviors occur in gray spaces with enhanced stayability. Examples include learning streets, steps, qualitative environments, and playful scenarios that reinforce and amplify the lodgability of gray space as a place for interactional learning.
2.2.3 Principle of situationality
The creation of scenarios is also an effective means of promoting interactive learning in gray spaces. Different scenarios can be created to promote different forms of interactive learning, such as displays, discussions, reading books, games and sports.
2.3 Optimization of grey space design strategies for elementary school in old urban areas based on Herzberg's interactive learning needs
In order to promote interactive learning, in addition to creating gray space, it is also necessary to create an atmosphere suitable for interaction within it. As a carrier space to promote interactive learning, the interaction within the gray space is the core optimization goal. With the perspective of Herzberg's educational philosophy, the author optimizes and transforms these grey spaces in a targeted way.
2.3.1 Macro perspective - learning engagement based on Herzberg's campus environment - lightweight creation of "non-traffic" grey spaces
Herzberg advocates that environments outside the classroom should stimulate students' curiosity and promote interactive learning. However, in Hangzhou elementary school in old urban areas, there is a lack of non-transportation gray space, resulting in a lack of interactive learning places. For this reason, gray space can be built through light structures to create a place for interactive learning.
2.3.1.1 Wall-based lightweight gray space - open campus borders
Lightweight gray space based on fences is to use lightweight gray space to replace the closed or semi-closed boundary walls of elementary school, open up the campus boundary and replace the original closed boundary with metal fences or metal mesh interfaces, combine with gray space to form a space that can interact with the community and provide students with the need to interact and learn, while strengthening the interaction between the school and the community, and also make the original space of the depressed alley more open it has a positive meaning to the community.
In the campus, in order to preserve the original greenery along the wall, the greenery enclosure can be raised and extended to create a "non-traffic" grey space that connects with the residents and promotes students' interaction and learning, as well as providing a wide view and more interaction and learning scenarios.
2.3.1.2 Lightweight Gray Space Based on Building Boundaries - Outward Extension of the Academic Building
The school building is the center of student activities, so it is possible to create gray space attached to the boundary of the school building. Extend the grey space from the original grey space to the surrounding borders where there is no grey space, in order to expand the range of grey space and increase the number of "non-traffic" grey space.
On campus, the environmental conditions around the academic buildings vary, such as running tracks, lawns, hard surfaces, etc., which can be used to create different atmospheres of interaction depending on the environmental conditions.
Elementary school in the old city of Hangzhou usually have a circular running track around the perimeter, and because of the lack of space to build a standard playground, they have to merge the road and the track, while lacking a standard grandstand. Therefore, while building a lightweight gray space, removable steps can be set up to serve as bleachers and also provide a place for interaction and learning.
The lawn greenery can be treated with landscaping, paved with curved pathways and set with stone benches and round tables to enhance the quality of the gray space and inspire students to interact and learn.
Hard paved areas can be set up with tables and chairs with a strong sense of spatial enclosure as a way to create discussion-friendly scenarios to guide interactive learning among students.
2.3.1.3 Roof-based lightweight gray space - vertical expansion of engagement learning
The utilization of roof space can alleviate the problem of insufficient space for activities in elementary school where land is scarce. Some elementary school have scenic roof space, such as placing greenery, seats, etc., while others have done nothing at all.
Therefore, lightweight gray space can be added to the roof space to increase the activity space, and to promote interaction and learning among students by improving the function of the gray space. Gray space can activate the vitality of the roof space and realize the effect of 1+1＞2.
2.3.2 Micro perspective - spatial approach based on Herzberg's promotion of interaction - enhancement of interaction quality of existing gray spaces
Herzberg's approach to spatial design focuses on hierarchy and openness, which is a natural attribute of gray space. For those closed corridor spaces and staircase spaces, the enclosure needs to be removed to achieve openness; however, the gray spaces in elementary schools generally lack hierarchy, and Hertzberg's approach is to obtain transitional spaces by expanding the spatial scale and the secondary qualification of boundaries to enhance the spatial hierarchy. Therefore, there is a need to extend the scale of the gallery space and the stair space and enrich their functions. The overhead space has a larger scale, and the square grid system can be utilized to qualify the space. The optimization strategies for these gray spaces are specified below.
2.3.2.1 Learning streetization of classroom gallery space - functional module placement
The width of the corridors in elementary school buildings in the old city of Hangzhou ranges from 1.8m-2.4m, which is too narrow to support multi-level interactive learning behaviors. In order to realize the effect of Herzberg Learning Street, it is necessary to expand the width of the corridor and add functional modules to improve the function of the corridor and the effect of interactive learning.
1. Appropriate scales
There are two different situations of columns and no columns in the corridor space structure of elementary school classrooms in the old urban area of Hangzhou, so it is necessary to use different means of treatment to expand different categories of corridor space.
In order to expand the scale of the corridor space without columns, it was necessary to reinforce the original structure to support the loads. After the expansion, the scale of the gallery space can be enlarged to 3 m. This value is derived from the minimum width of the outer gallery in the code (1.8 m) plus the width of the classroom side reserved for two streams of pedestrian traffic (1.2 m).
In a columned gallery space, the structural pressure when expanding is reduced due to the support of the columns, so the scale of expansion can be enlarged. However, in order to ensure lighting, the depth of the gallery cannot be too large, so the expansion scale is limited to 1.2 meters, and the overall scale range is 3 meters to 3.6 meters.
2. Placement of functional modules
In order to promote interactive learning in the gallery space, different functional modules, such as display, rest, books and discussion, can be utilized to achieve different functions. By placing these functional modules in the gallery, the boundaries of the gallery space are redefined to form a space with specific functions, thus better facilitating interactive learning.
In the colonnade-less space, different functional modules are combined with each classroom wall to reconfigure the relationship between the wall and the students, enabling students to interact and learn within the class area while promoting interaction between different classes.
In the space of the corridor with columns as the fulcrum to place functional modules, forming an island type of interaction and learning area, not only can dissolve the sense of existence of the columns, but also make the whole corridor space more like a platform type of overall interaction space.
2.3.2.2 Activation of interactions in stair spaces - platform expansion
In elementary school in the old city of Hangzhou, students often engage in interaction activities in the staircase space. In order to maximize the interaction attributes of the staircase space and activate its use scenarios, it is first necessary to ensure the openness of the staircase space to improve the view and light. For the built-in staircase, openness is required; for the external staircase, the wall needs to be removed. Secondly, the staircase platform should be expanded to provide a place for interaction and learning, while reducing the proportion of "transportation".
After expanding a certain amount of space on the platform of the staircase space, in order to make the expansion part of the more stay, can be put into the bench, so that the occasional teachers and students or students can stop at any time to carry out interaction activities; due to the staircase space has the characteristics of the difference in height, therefore, in the expansion of the place can be put into the miniature step, in order to create the effect of a mini theater, the students can play and interact at the same time to avoid the traffic congestion. The students can play and socialize while avoiding traffic jam.
2.3.2.3 The "grid" system of overhead spaces and sinking
Overhead space is more spacious and inclusive than staircase space and corridor space, but without proper treatment, it will weaken the spatial hierarchy and reduce the efficiency of interaction and learning. In order to achieve efficient interaction and learning, we can learn from Hertzberg's "square grid" structural system, which uses columnar bars to subdivide the overhead space into multiple orderly grid-like small spaces to achieve the purpose of separation, but not isolation, and at the same time, different functions can also be placed in each grid. The space in the centralized part can be sunk to become a centripetal sunken space, with steps that also function as a small theatre to promote interaction and learning.
3 Conclusion
Regarding the future of these elementary school, the education sector needs to pay more attention to them, and consideration can be given to redeveloping them to make more rational use of the space, or how the sites of these elementary school can be expanded, and these issues need to be accorded high priority in the future.
