Tree & House: A School Gymnasium

Background: a gym for teenage students

Tree & House explores the relationship between form and function in a school gymnasium. The starting point was not only the need for a large indoor sports space, but also the question of how that space might feel welcoming to teenage students.

The original brief framed a tension between time devoted to study and opportunities for physical activity. It argued for greater emotional care in the design of school sports buildings. My response was to work with two familiar images: playing under trees and the simple house imagined by a child.

Original portfolio background board showing charts of sports participation and time use alongside an illustration of nurturing a tree — Original background diagrams: sports participation, daily time use, and educational priorities. Retained as design context, not presented as current statistics.

These images become architectural decisions rather than applied decoration: branches inform the supporting columns, a canopy becomes a roof structure, and house-shaped openings give a rhythm to the enclosure.

Form: playing under trees

The first concept draws on the experience of playing beneath a tree canopy. A tree offers both a recognizable support and a space underneath it. The design translates that relationship into a wide-span hall, where students can play beneath a roof held by branching, tree-form columns.

Reference photograph from the original portfolio of children playing beneath leafy trees — The first reference image: play beneath a canopy. Reproduced from the original design materials.

The evolution diagram moves from a natural archetype to a defined area, then to the erection of a structural system. It is a way of developing an enclosed sports space without losing the spatial image that initiated the project.

Three-stage concept diagram moving from a grove of trees to a defined footprint and then a roof supported by tree-form columns — Natural archetype → define a scope → erect the structure.

The abstraction separates leaves from trunks. The canopy is expressed through a green truss, while the trunks become tree-form columns with a wood-like surface treatment. The analogy links the experience of the space to its proposed structural organization.

Concept diagram separating a tree into leaves and trunk, translating the leaves into a green truss and the trunk into branching columns — Two linked translations: the visual canopy and the supporting trunk.

Form: the house in a child’s mind

The second concept uses the familiar combination of a rectangle and a triangular roof. In the original proposal, this image introduces a sense of intimacy within the larger gymnasium.

Small house-shaped reference object with a rectangular body and pitched roof, used in the original design portfolio — The second reference image: a simple, recognizable house silhouette.

The house is formed in the space between two tree-form columns. Repeated structural bays share the same spacing, but variations in the house profile make the facade less uniform. The two starting images are therefore combined in one interface: tree-like supports and house-shaped infill.

Diagram combining two branching trees with a house-shaped opening and repeating varied house profiles across a regular facade module — A common bay spacing accommodates variations in the house-shaped enclosure.

South elevation of the gymnasium showing branching columns, varied house-shaped openings, and the lower activity wing — The facade translates the concept into a continuous architectural elevation.

Exploded diagram separating the second-floor enclosure, first-floor enclosure, and main tree-form structural frame — The enclosure is developed around the main tree-form structure, with distinct first- and second-floor layers.

Function: a wide-span structural system

The structural proposal connects the tree imagery to the practical need for an open sports hall. A truss spans the main gym, with smaller supports connecting it to the branching columns. The accompanying activity spaces use a frame system.

Structural exploded view identifying the roof, green truss, small supports, tree-form columns, foundation, and exposed concrete facade — The original exploded view: roof, truss, smaller supports, main columns, and foundation.

The diagram describes the intended load path from roof and truss through the supports and columns to the foundation. The exposed concrete enclosure gives the branching elements a contrasting background.

Layout and circulation

The plan organizes a large sports hall alongside a smaller-scale activity wing. On the first floor, three courts occupy the main hall. Table tennis, a student activity centre, equipment rooms, and the shared entrance area support different kinds of use around it.

First-floor plan with three courts, equipment rooms, table-tennis room, student activity centre, and main, staff, and secondary entrances — First floor: the main sports area and adjacent activity spaces. Entrance labels and section markers are retained from the original drawing.

The higher first-floor drawing reveals the seating and perimeter circulation around the hall. The second floor develops dance, gymnastics, and martial-arts rooms around an open terrace with a tree, bringing the initial natural image back into the building’s shared spaces.

Higher first-floor plan showing spectator seating, perimeter circulation, office rooms, and the relationship to the activity wing — First floor, higher level: seating and circulation around the hall.

Second-floor plan showing dance, gymnastics, and martial-arts rooms around a tree terrace, alongside the sports hall — Second floor: activity rooms and an open terrace.

Exploded circulation diagram distinguishing water and fire services, vertical movement, outdoor sports-equipment supply, and non-sport users — The original circulation study separates different movements and service routes within the shared organization.

Section 1–1: playing beneath the canopy

The first section makes the main spatial idea visible. The truss forms a canopy above the open playing area; branching columns meet it at the sides. Perimeter rooms, galleries, and stepped seating give the hall a range of viewing positions and smaller spaces at its edges.

Section 1-1 through the sports hall showing the green roof truss, branching columns, perimeter galleries, and stepped seating — Section 1–1: the relationship between the wide-span roof, the playing area, and the occupied edges.

Interior design visualization of students playing below a green truss canopy, with branching supports and galleries along concrete walls — The interior perspective gives the structural concept a human scale: play takes place beneath a visibly articulated canopy.

Section 2–2: connecting the hall and activity wing

The second section follows the relationship between the taller sports hall and the adjoining activity spaces. Stairs connect the entrance level to the upper terrace, where a tree and an open-air gathering space sit between enclosed rooms. The proposal combines the larger scale of sport with spaces for movement, meeting, and everyday school life.

Section 2-2 through the activity wing, open tree terrace, stair, and main sports hall under a continuous roof line — Section 2–2: activity rooms, the open terrace, and the sports hall read together in section.

The plans and sections are the original design drawings, shown without a fixed on-screen scale. Each can be enlarged for closer inspection.

Perspectives: tree and house together

The final views return to the two starting images. The terrace offers a place around a tree; the exterior brings the branching structure and house-shaped facade into the setting of the school sports grounds.

Design perspective of an upper timber-surfaced terrace with a central tree, surrounding rooms, and students gathering nearby — The tree terrace: an informal shared space within the activity wing.

Full exterior design perspective of the gymnasium and activity wing beside outdoor courts and the running track — The complete exterior perspective, retaining the relationship to the outdoor sports grounds.

The project is a design exercise in making an architectural idea work across scales: from a childhood image to a structural bay, from a facade pattern to the organization of a sports building.

Adapted from the original Tree & House portfolio and matching project assets. Reference photographs are retained as concept imagery from that portfolio. This is an academic design proposal, not a built project.