TM Studio Builds a Stepped Concrete Home for Yu Yi's Educational Thought on a Shanghai School Campus

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This article covers topics related to Educational Building, Architecture. On a Yangpu high school corner in Shanghai, terraced concrete, a public arcade and warm oak interiors turn an educator's legacy into civic architecture.

On a Yangpu high school corner in Shanghai, terraced concrete, a public arcade and warm oak interiors turn an educator's legacy into civic architecture.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Educational Building, Architecture on Oct 31, 2026

Buildings named after educators usually end up as memorials: a bust in the lobby, a vitrine of manuscripts, a hall that fills once a year. The Research Centre for Yu Yi Educational Thought, completed in 2024 by TM Studio under lead architect Tong Ming, with Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd. as the collaborating design institute, aims for something more active. It occupies the southeast corner of the Yangpu Senior High School campus, near the junction of Siping Road and Dalian Road in Shanghai's Yangpu District. That placement puts 9,093 m² of research, teaching and gathering space at the hinge between a school and one of the district's busiest arteries.

What interests us is how the building negotiates that hinge. The project's own diagrams show a 24 m height limit and a 5 m setback shaping the mass, and the architects turn those constraints into a stepped, terraced block. Each step carries planting. At street level, a deep concrete colonnade gives a slice of the site back to the sidewalk. Inside, exposed concrete frames meet oak stairs, timber lattice ceilings and skylit voids. The result reads less like a monument to a person and more like an argument about what a school building owes its city.

A Pale Block on a Loud Corner

Street corner view of the pale concrete facade with deep colonnade bays and rooftop planting under a dusky pink sky

Long exposure of light trails on the road in front of the concrete block with planted terrace at dusk

Elevated view of the building and its green roof beside a wide boulevard, with a bus and yellow taxi passing

Elevated view of the pale concrete building among red brick apartment blocks and towers in hazy dusk light

Aerial view of a stepped white facade with rooftop planting above a busy street with a bus and pedestrians

Grey concrete building with recessed windows beside a red brick block, flower beds lining the driveway in evening light

Seen from above, the centre is easy to pick out among the red brick apartment slabs and glass towers of Yangpu. Its pale concrete makes no effort to blend with the brick, yet its massing is careful. The building steps back as it rises, so the bulk recedes from the boulevard and the roof terraces face the sky instead of looming over the pavement.

The long-exposure dusk shots show what the corner really is: a stream of buses, taxis and light trails. A school building could easily turn its back on this. Instead, the facade keeps a steady, gridded rhythm that registers at traffic speed, and the green crown signals from a distance that this block is not one more office building.

The Colonnade as Public Gift

Covered concrete arcade with stepped beams and square columns, where two people sit on a ledge and pedestrians walk in afternoon sun

Colonnade of concrete columns and projecting beams along a sidewalk, with pedestrians walking in low afternoon sun

Concrete entrance facade with stepped brackets above a glazed ground floor, lit exhibition hall visible inside at dusk

Corner of the concrete block with recessed windows and a lit ground-floor entrance, seen at dusk beside a small parking area

The most generous move happens at ground level. Square concrete columns and stepped, projecting beams form an arcade along the sidewalk, and the photographs show it being used as intended: people sitting on a ledge, pedestrians cutting through in low afternoon sun. The setback a planning code requires becomes shade and a place to pause.

The stepped brackets above the entrance repeat the profile of the massing at a smaller scale, so the structure itself tells you how the building is organized. At dusk the glazed ground floor opens the exhibition hall to the street. Ideas about education are displayed to passers-by rather than kept behind a campus gate.

Planted Terraces and Concrete Fins

Close-up of tall concrete fins and planter balconies with shrubs, framed by yellowing autumn leaves in the foreground

Narrow concrete balcony lined with planters and tall fins, with two people standing in sharp sunlight and shadow

Concrete balcony walkway with stacked cantilevered slabs, glazed doors and leafy shrubs in bright sunlight

Up close, the facade reveals its layering. Tall concrete fins frame narrow balconies lined with planters, and stacked cantilevered slabs form walkways that run past glazed doors. The fins cut low sun and sharpen shadows, so the elevation changes character through the day.

The planting does real work. Shrubs on each terrace soften a material palette that could otherwise feel severe, and they give the occupants of classrooms and offices an outdoor edge at every level. The wall sections confirm that the planters are built into the floor build-ups, not added as balcony decoration.

A Lobby That Looks Toward the Grove

Concrete lobby with a freestanding round column, a timber reception counter and a glass wall facing a planted garden

Ground floor hall with concrete beams and round columns opening through full-height glazing to a garden of staked saplings

Concrete courtyard with a long wall bench and a planter of yellow flowering plants under a dusk sky

Facing the street, the building is civic and composed. Facing the campus, it is calmer. The lobby, with its freestanding round column and timber reception counter, looks through full-height glazing toward a garden of staked saplings that the site plan places beside an existing tree grove. That grove anchors the whole scheme; the drawings keep returning to it.

A concrete courtyard with a long wall bench and beds of yellow flowering plants extends the ground floor outdoors. It is a modest space, but it gives students and visiting researchers somewhere to sit that belongs to neither the street nor the classroom.

Stairs as Rooms

Wide timber stepped stair rising between concrete columns and a glazed wall, under a ceiling of exposed beams

Double-height hall with a timber stepped platform below a glass-balustraded concrete mezzanine lit by a skylight above

Upper landing with an oak-clad staircase, glass balustrade and angled concrete ceiling planes in soft daylight

View down an oak-lined stair toward a lit glazed room set in a tall concrete shaft with a skylight grid

Concrete hall with a timber stair, a cantilevered upper walkway and a portrait wall glowing warm at the far end

Circulation is where the interior earns its keep. A wide timber stepped stair rises between concrete columns beside a glazed wall, sized for sitting as much as climbing. In the double-height hall, a timber stepped platform sits below a glass-balustraded mezzanine lit from a skylight. These are informal lecture theatres disguised as stairs, a fitting typology for a centre devoted to teaching.

The material split is consistent: concrete for structure and ceilings, oak for anything the hand or foot touches. Looking down an oak-lined stair into a glazed room set inside a tall skylit shaft, you get the building's best spatial moment. Light falls through several floors, and the vertical void ties the stacked program together.

Auditorium, Halls and Classrooms

Auditorium seen from the stage, with rows of grey seats, timber wall panels and a lattice ceiling hung with spotlights

Tiered auditorium seating of oak benches and concrete steps beneath a timber grid ceiling with recessed downlights

Interior hall with exposed concrete beams, timber lattice ceiling and wood floor, with a lone figure facing the glazed terrace doors

Open timber-floored room with a coffered concrete ceiling, oak panels and afternoon sun falling through glazed doors to a terrace

Room with a timber grid ceiling and a triangular skylight casting a slanted light streak, with folding wood partitions open

The tiered auditorium pairs oak benches with concrete steps under a timber grid ceiling. Its warmth comes from the wood rather than from upholstery or finishes, which suits a room meant for seminars and debate more than for performance.

Elsewhere, the multifunction halls and classrooms share a family resemblance: exposed concrete beams or coffers overhead, timber floors and panels, glazed doors opening onto terraces. A triangular skylight throws a slanted streak across one timber-ceilinged room, and folding wood partitions let spaces merge or divide. The rooms are flexible without feeling generic, and every one of them has access to daylight and air.

Plans and Drawings

Site plan drawing showing the building footprint among surrounding campus buildings, a tree grove and neighboring roads

Axonometric diagram of a stepped building mass with red hatched facades, a 24 m height limit and a 5 m setback beside a tree-lined park

Axonometric diagram labeling stacked program layers, from exhibition and lounge at the base to conference hall, reading area, office and roof garden above

Axonometric diagram of the green interconnected voids, including multipurpose hall, courtyard, steps and entrance hall, beside a grove of trees

Ground floor plan drawing showing lobby, exhibition hall, stair core and service rooms beside a planted grove

Second floor plan drawing showing a tiered auditorium, a wide central stair and lounge spaces along the street edge

Third floor plan drawing showing a large double-height hall, a row of classrooms and a terrace at the east end

Fourth floor plan drawing showing a large multifunction hall, stepped classroom, meeting rooms and stair cores, with an outdoor terrace along the south edge

Fifth floor plan drawing showing offices and meeting rooms on the right, a double-height void at center and a terrace along the south edge

Roof level plan drawing showing a planted roof garden, skylights, equipment areas and a paved rooftop platform ringed by greenery

Roof plan drawing showing a grid of skylight panels, sloped roof planes and planted strips along the long edges

Elevation drawing of a stepped five-storey block with a gridded facade, a low canopy and a stand of tall trees at right

Elevation drawing of the opposite facade, showing a stepped block with ribbon windows, a ground-floor glazed bay and trees at left

Two elevation drawings of a stepped multistorey block, one with sparse small windows and one with a gridded upper facade over a sunken court

Longitudinal section drawing showing numbered rooms, a central stair hall, a basement garage and a row of trees at the right edge

Pair of building section drawings showing a tiered auditorium with stepped seating on the left and stacked rooms around a central void on the right

Cross section drawing of a stacked block with rooms around a central stair, a ground-floor lobby and a basement level below

Two wall section drawings showing floor build-ups, glazed curtain walls, planter terraces and roof edges, with small figures for scale

Two detail section drawings of facade and roof edges showing planters, balustrades, insulated walls and rooftop solar panels with figures for scale

The axonometric diagrams make the logic plain. The mass is carved by the 24 m height limit and the 5 m setback. Program stacks from exhibition and lounge at the base to conference hall, reading area and offices above, finishing with a roof garden. A third diagram traces a chain of green, interconnected voids, from the entrance hall through the steps and courtyard to the multipurpose hall.

The plans show how each floor shifts. The ground floor holds the lobby and exhibition hall beside the grove. The second floor carries the tiered auditorium and the wide central stair. Classrooms, a double-height hall and terraces fill the third and fourth floors, and the fifth floor holds offices around a central void. The wall and detail sections are worth studying for their integrated planters, insulated walls and rooftop solar panels, evidence that the green terraces were engineered from the start.

Why This Project Matters

Chinese cities are full of school campuses walled off from the street, and of commemorative buildings that people visit once. TM Studio's centre proposes a different model: an educational building that gives its setback to the public as an arcade, shows its exhibition hall to the boulevard and puts its stairs to work as places to learn. The tribute to Yu Yi's educational thought is spatial, not just symbolic.

It is also a useful lesson in turning regulation into form. The height cap and setback could have produced a dull extruded box. Here they produce a terraced section, planted edges and a sequence of voids that carry light and people through the building. For anyone designing on tight urban school sites, that is the takeaway: treat the constraints as the brief, and let the building teach in public.

Research Centre for Yu Yi Educational Thought by TM Studio (lead architect Tong Ming) with Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd., Yangpu District, Shanghai, China. Area: 9,093 m². Completed: 2024. Photography: Fangfang Tian.

About the Studio

TM Studio

Official website of TM Studio, one of the studios behind this project.

tmdesignstudio.com.au

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