Maruokaminami Junior High School

This new junior high school is located in a rural district. The school is run using the “subject-centered system", which stimulates students and fosters their independence by allowing them to move throughout the school for their classes, rather than staying in a single classroom which various teachers visit (the latter system is more common in Japan). The school consists of a grouping of subject classrooms, media spaces, and homerooms; a gym; and four courtyards, which together form a single large cluster. The media space, gym, and cafeteria are three-dimensionally linked via courtyards and voids, resulting in a series of spaces that are at once dispersed and integrated.