A timber school campus immersed in the Uruguayan landscape dissolves the conventional boundary between classroom and park, using spatial diversity, outdoor circulation and direct contact with nature as active components of education.

The Garzón School in Uruguay by Rosan Bosch Studio is conceived as a learning landscape where architecture, interior design and the natural environment operate as a continuous whole.

Set within a 94-acre rural landscape surrounded by eucalyptus forests, meadows and a lake, the campus moves away from the conventional model of classrooms connected by enclosed corridors. Instead, buildings, pathways, plazas, vegetation and open-air areas form a network that allows learning to move between interior and exterior throughout the day.

The project develops around a simple principle: the school is the park and the park is the school. Nature is therefore not treated as a backdrop or an occasional destination, but as part of the everyday structure of learning.

 

Landscape as a learning environment

The organization of the campus begins with its natural setting.

Pathways move through planted areas and connect a series of smaller buildings rather than concentrating the entire programme within a single institutional volume. The resulting arrangement gives the school the character of a small settlement dispersed through the landscape.

Outdoor areas accommodate different scales and forms of activity. Some support gathering and play, while others create more protected conditions for smaller groups or individual work.

Transitions between enclosed rooms, covered areas and open landscape remain gradual. Educational activities can therefore shift according to use, weather conditions, group size or the degree of concentration required.

The landscape does not operate as a decorative perimeter around the architecture. It participates directly in circulation, social interaction and the daily use of the school.

 

Six Learning Worlds

The spatial organization is structured around six design principles developed by Rosan Bosch Studio, described as Learning Worlds: Mountain Top, Cave, Campfire, Watering Hole, Hands-on and Movement.

Each corresponds to a different mode of learning rather than to a conventional classroom type.

The Mountain Top supports presentation, performance and focused communication to a group. The Cave offers smaller settings for concentration, retreat and individual work. The Campfire creates conditions for storytelling, dialogue and shared attention, while the Watering Hole encourages informal exchange and peer-to-peer learning.

Hands-on areas are intended for making, experimentation and practical problem-solving, while Movement recognizes physical activity and play as integral parts of the learning process.

Rather than permanently assigning one activity to one room, these spatial conditions allow students and teachers to move between collective and individual work, concentration and exploration, structured instruction and informal interaction.

 

A timber settlement within the landscape

The campus is constructed entirely from sustainably sourced timber, with the external surfaces treated using the traditional Japanese Shou Sugi Ban technique of charring the outer layer of the material.

The dark façades contrast with the vegetation while retaining the tactile character of the timber. The common treatment also establishes a coherent architectural identity among the different buildings.

Brick plazas introduce another material register, drawing on local Uruguayan architectural traditions. Native vegetation extends between the structures and reinforces the continuity between the built areas and the wider landscape.

Timber, brick and planting therefore establish a deliberately limited material palette, connecting the architecture with both the ecological and cultural characteristics of its setting.

 

Learning between indoors and outdoors

The architecture repeatedly creates intermediate spaces instead of abrupt boundaries.

Covered areas allow activities to extend beyond enclosed rooms. Pathways operate not only as circulation routes but also as places for encounter, observation and informal learning. Plazas accommodate collective activities, while vegetation defines smaller areas with varying degrees of enclosure.

This spatial variety gives students greater choice in how and where they work.

The school consequently functions less as a sequence of predefined classrooms and more as an interconnected system of different learning environments. Moving between them becomes part of the educational experience.

 

Physical experience in the age of AI

The project also responds to a broader discussion surrounding education at a time when digital tools and artificial intelligence increasingly influence how knowledge is accessed and shared.

The Garzón School does not position technology and physical space as opposites. Instead, it emphasizes forms of learning that depend on direct experience: movement, face-to-face interaction, contact with materials, observation and engagement with the natural environment.

Children can make, experiment, play, collaborate and observe changes in the landscape as part of the normal school day.

Physical space therefore becomes an active complement to digital learning, providing experiences that extend beyond the transfer of information.

 

Architecture as pedagogical infrastructure

At The Garzón School, architecture is not treated simply as accommodation for a predefined educational programme.

The relationship with the landscape, the diversity of spatial conditions and the absence of rigid boundaries between learning and circulation create an environment where different forms of activity can coexist.

Rosan Bosch Studio approached the masterplan, landscape architecture, buildings and interiors as interconnected elements of the same educational system.

The result replaces the repeated classroom module with a varied landscape of spaces for concentration, communication, experimentation, movement and collective life. Architecture becomes part of the pedagogical structure itself, while the surrounding landscape participates directly in the everyday experience of learning