Education experience · Cultural heritage · Visual system
Under the Round and Square Eaves
方圆屋檐下 · Fujian Tulou STEAM field-study course
A field-based learning experience that turns Fujian Tulou from heritage architecture into something students can observe, test, build, and reinterpret.
Role
Independent designer & facilitator
Team
Solo project; field delivery supported by teachers and classmates
Timeline
March–June 2023
Context
BFA graduation project · Fujian Yongding
My contribution
I independently conceived and designed the curriculum, teaching approach, visual identity, handbook, and toolkit, then facilitated the field session. Teachers and classmates supported on-site coordination and delivery.
01 · Designing for place
Heritage became something students could investigate—not just observe.
Conventional heritage lessons often explain a building before students have a reason to care. This course starts with lived details, then turns noticing into questions, experiments, and personal interpretation.
01 · Sense
Tulou impressions
Begin with what students notice, remember, and feel.
02 · Focus
Why settlements begin here
Turn observation into questions about place and community.
03 · Build
Rammed-earth challenge
Test material, structure, and construction through making.
04 · Create
Shared courtyard
Translate learning into a personal model of communal life.
02 · The learning system
Four activities, one loop from noticing to making.
The curriculum combines observation, structural reasoning, hands-on prototyping, and reflection. Each activity contributes evidence that students use in the next one.
01
Observe before explaining
Prompts invite students to identify spatial and structural clues before receiving historical context.
02
Make the invisible tangible
Material tests turn wall thickness, compression, and community construction into something students can hold.
03
Reflect through making
The final model asks students to reinterpret shared life rather than reproduce a historic form.
03 · In the field
The course changed when the classroom became the Tulou itself.
Students observed the architecture, tested rammed-earth construction, and translated the shared courtyard into their own models. The place supplied scale, texture, and social context that a classroom could not.
9
Sixth-grade students
1
Day field workshop
Jiqing Lou
Yongding, Fujian
2023.03.30
On-site delivery
Learning in placeThe field setting made the material and communal dimensions of Tulou visible.Testing through makingStudents worked through material, structure, and decoration by hand.
04 · What students made
Nine responses to the same shared-space prompt.
The final models were not meant to reproduce one “correct” Tulou. Differences in roof, color, interior objects, and courtyard use reveal what each student noticed and valued.
Student work photographed and isolated from the classroom background. No student names are shown.
05 · Student voice
The most convincing outcome was what students remembered.
The handwritten reflections were lightly formatted for the school, but the observations are the students’ own. Names are omitted here.
“The class was fun and not tiring. I learned how a Tulou is built.”
“Seeing my finished model gave me a real sense of accomplishment.”
“I experienced the wisdom of ancient builders and learned more about Tulou.”
Anonymous excerpts, translated and cropped for privacy.
06 · The complete system
A visual identity carried the learning experience beyond the workshop.
The poster, handbook, toolkit, and exhibition materials use one visual language so the course could be introduced, delivered, and shared as a coherent experience.
Designed by me
Curriculum · Teaching toolkit · Visual identity · Course handbook · Field facilitation · Exhibition material
07 · Reflection
Designing the lesson meant designing for what could change.
Field delivery exposed where the plan needed to flex. The strongest learning came from adapting the sequence to students’ local knowledge, energy, and confidence.
01
Adapt to lived knowledge
Students were local residents with knowledge that a generic field guide could not anticipate.
02
Make facilitation visible
Initial shyness made small-group prompts and peer demonstration essential.
03
Reduce repetitive making
The roof-decoration step became more meaningful after simplifying repeated tasks.
Project outcome
A complete field-learning experience connecting cultural heritage, making, and student reflection.
Authorship
Independent concept, curriculum, visual system, toolkit, and facilitation—with on-site support from teachers and classmates.
