Beijing Gaoliying Kindergarten / MAT Office

Architects: MAT Office
Area: 2,400 m²
Year: 2024
Photography: Weiqi Jin
Lead Architects: Tang Kangshuo, Zhang Miao
Design Team: Wang Feiyu, Tong Siyang, Li Xitong, Xia Yinailin, Chen Xiangxun (intern), Wan Zilin (intern), Lin Hua (drawing), Wu Xinke (drawing)
Construction Design: WDCE
City: Beijing
Country: China

Located in Gaoliying Town in Beijing’s Shunyi District, the Beijing Gaoliying Kindergarten by MAT Office provides a nurturing educational environment for a nearby affordable housing community. Conceived as a circular building with six classrooms, the kindergarten embodies the theme of “Running to the Sky,” inviting children to explore a world of movement, freedom, and discovery. Through its spiraling circulation and rooftop playground, the design connects architectural form with the joy of exploration. The transparent ground level and layered upper façade introduce light and rhythm, while the yellow palette and rounded geometry infuse warmth and optimism. Balancing practicality with imagination, MAT Office crafts a space that celebrates both the functional and emotional dimensions of early education.

Beijing gaoliying kindergarten / mat office

The Beijing Gaoliying Kindergarten stands as a thoughtful interpretation of how educational architecture can encourage curiosity and movement. MAT Office approached the design not as a static institution but as a dynamic structure shaped by children’s energy and play. The circular plan encloses a central courtyard, creating a protected yet open core that visually unifies the various classrooms and communal spaces. This form establishes a sense of continuity and inclusion, allowing children to move seamlessly between learning, play, and rest.

The project’s spatial narrative unfolds through a series of ascending pathways, reflecting the concept of freedom and exploration. Children progress from the ground-floor classrooms through an outdoor staircase along the courtyard wall, reaching a double-height corridor and continuing upward to the rooftop playground. This carefully choreographed movement transforms everyday circulation into a multisensory journey, where ascending and descending become playful acts of discovery. The rooftop, with its running track and open vistas toward airplanes and mountains, reinforces the project’s poetic dialogue between earth and sky.

Transparency and light play essential roles in the kindergarten’s architectural language. The ground floor employs glass curtain walls that open the classrooms to the courtyard, allowing daylight to animate interior spaces throughout the day. Above, the façade integrates vertical and horizontal sunshades that frame the windows and articulate the building’s proportions. These elements form a contemporary reinterpretation of the classical tripartite composition, introducing both rhythm and depth to the exterior expression.

Material restraint underscores MAT Office’s sensitivity to the kindergarten’s function. Smooth surfaces, gentle curves, and carefully proportioned details create an atmosphere of calm and safety, while the bright yellow façade adds vibrancy without overwhelming the senses. Rounded corners soften the volume, inviting tactile engagement and contributing to a sense of familiarity. This blend of clarity and playfulness allows the building to communicate directly with its young users while maintaining architectural coherence.

Lightwells punctuating the rooftop extend daylight into interior spaces and double as sculptural play elements. These features reinforce the continuity between function and imagination that defines the project. Although the interior design was later simplified due to changes in the client’s requirements, the architectural framework continues to express the original vision of simplicity and comfort. It remains a place where essential spatial elements—walls, windows, and built-in furniture—encourage intuitive interaction and movement.

In its synthesis of concept and construction, the Beijing Gaoliying Kindergarten captures MAT Office’s belief in architecture as a medium of experience and emotion. The project transforms a modest educational facility into a landscape of exploration, bridging the physical and imaginative worlds of childhood. By translating the act of “running to the sky” into architectural form, MAT Office creates a poetic environment where learning and play intertwine—an uplifting gesture toward freedom, light, and the promise of growth.