Firm： SWA GROUP / Los Angeles

Type： Landscape + Planning › Public Park

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2023

SIZE： 10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

BUDGET： $1M - 5M

What is distinctive in the site is that it is the public center of the university community. We hope to manifest the diverse campus culture through the community park. The main idea of space construction is to skillfully integrate the humanistic atmosphere with park service functions. Compared with the campus, Eucalyptus Society Garden has become a more extensive and widely used cultural carrier. There is an ancient eucalyptus tree that has grown for decades in the site. As the old proverb dating back thousands of years says: "It takes ten years to grow trees and a hundred years to nurture talents", which means that it takes more time and energy to cultivate a person into a talent than a small tree to grow into a big tree. According to legend, Confucius sat at the foot of a big tree to sing to the accompaniment of stringed instruments, give lectures and teach his students to read. Planting trees is just like educating people, the reverse is also true. We hope to reproduce such historical scenes in space and provide a tranquil place for thinking through the School House under the Tree in the Circus.

We highlight the image of the ancient tree through the plain formal language of the circle. The circles extend outward layer by layer and develop into a square under the tree. On the square, there are specially customized stone benches combining the modern design language and the plain texture. When students sit on stone benches to read, think and perceive the world in face of the ancient tree, they will collide with nature in thinking. The innermost and outermost cycles of the square under the tree are paved with grass planting bricks to express the integration and infiltration of nature and life into humanity.