True North School
- Field: Education
- Area: 8600 m2
- Year: 2021
- Location: Hanoi, Vietnam
“Discover Your True North” – a compass to help orient, explore and perfect yourself, contributing to global development.
A global and comprehensive learning environment, a learning community based on interaction. True North School is the first school to apply the STEAM learning method in Vietnam, encouraging students to cultivate and develop their own interests and talents.
FLOOR PLAN
The project includes 04 blocks of space, of which 3 blocks are for 03 levels of education (primary, secondary, high school) and 1 multi-purpose building.
School block:
All three blocks are arranged according to a common layout: the first floor space is for the administrative area (principal’s office, staff room, reception hall) and the medical room; From the 2nd to the 4th floor are the classrooms.
For the middle and high school classes, in addition to the above spaces, the floors are arranged with additional spaces for gifted subjects: art room, music room, science room, auditorium.
Multi-purpose block:
- 1st floor: kitchen, canteen, BBQ area, technical room
- 2nd floor: library, reading area, group study area, book storage
- 3rd floor: Multi-purpose rooms for extracurricular activities
- 4th floor: Changing room, storage
DETAILS
Design orientation
The desire to create a coherent, continuous space by using shaping, navigation and space separation techniques.
- Using strong shapes and intersecting lines to express geometric and futuristic features.
- The image of the compass needle is transformed and used repeatedly to increase the recognition of the concept “Discover your true north”.
The entire space brings professionalism, focusing on encouraging exploration through design techniques.
Key element
01 – Technology: In addition to the STEAM curriculum and hybrid learning method, the project’s technology is also expressed through futuristic and geographic designs.
02 – Interaction: Interaction is one of the important values that create a developing teaching and learning community. The interior design focuses on interactive values, not only the interaction between people but also between people and technology, people in space.
03 – Art: The design shows artistry through the arrangement and placement of interactive points, both encouraging interaction and creating artistic values that inspire users.
Design concept
Growing up is an exciting journey and True North School is the “compass” that helps each student on that journey always find the right direction.
The world is always different in the eyes of each child and the process of discovery helps form a worldview. Therefore, DPLUS offers the concept of “Discover your true north” including 03 themes for 03 learning blocks to meet the needs of discovery and learning suitable for each age group.
Primary block – Rumble in the Jungle: In the first years of life, children learn about the world through instinct and senses in the simplest and purest way.
Exploiting the elements of the forest: colors, trees, animals, stylized in a geometric direction but rounded to ensure safety and aesthetics, the curves bring a fun, youthful look to the space.
Secondary block – Dive into the ocean: In the second theme, the colors are increased in tone from pastel blue to deep blue to show cognitive maturity, combined with complementary colors (yellow/red) to suit specific spaces that require creativity.
High school block – Discover infinity in space: In this block, students are older, starting to have a mature way of thinking, the colors used are also more dark tones such as dark blue, purple and silver gray. Dark, warm tones bring a feeling of relaxation, calm but still represent strength and creativity.
Color
The main color of the project is white to create a sense of order, suitable for the minimalist design style and educational environment.
However, to suit the age of students, we added some colors to make the space more youthful and fun:
- Deepblue: brand identity color
- Light green: color of the Northern Lights or green forest
- Ocean blue: blue plays a supporting role for the main color
- Yellow: color represents enthusiasm and positive energy.
In addition, neutral and dark tones are used to neutralize and balance the tones.
