
Nanjing No.1 Middle School is a provincial-level biology curriculum demonstration site in Jiangsu Province, China. The entire campus landscape has been ingeniously transformed into a carrier for biology course teaching. Therefore, we have planned the entire campus landscape as a “textbook” for biology courses, and this greenhouse garden with the design theme of “Tree of Life” is the general introduction of this “textbook”. The “Tree of Life,” also known as the “phylogenetic tree,” refers to the relationships between existing biological species on Earth and their evolutionary history, which is like a tree. The entire biological world is composed of six kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea, and Bacteria, which are manifested as six main branches on this tree.




Inspired by this, the design of the greenhouse garden is composed of six hexagonal branch-like steel frame structures, each corresponding to the six kingdoms of life. The hexagon itself also symbolizes the structure of the carbon atom, as carbon is the main element that constitutes biological organisms. Therefore, the shape of this greenhouse garden itself implies the entire biological world, helping students to understand the entire biological world. When they enter the greenhouse, they start the prelude to exploring the kingdom of life and the mysteries of life.

Walking into the greenhouse garden is like being in a rainforest world. The tropical plants planted indoors allow students to see the species in their unique habitats and feel the diversity of life. Students carry out plant tissue culture, animal hatching and other experiments in the greenhouse, promoting their understanding of the growth and development process of life. The greenhouse is not only a place for learning but also a paradise that stimulates curiosity and the desire for exploration. Students cultivate seeds here with their own hands, watching them sprout from the soil and grow vigorously. And these plant seedlings can be introduced to other parts of the campus to green and beautify the campus. This greenhouse garden, with its unique charm, allows students to learn biology in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. Here, every observation is a new discovery, and every experiment is a wonderful journey.

The interior of the greenhouse is carefully designed as a multi-functional teaching space, showing diversity in form, and different functional areas are divided by the six hexagonal steel frame structures. The greenhouse roof adopts an inward sloping form, and rainwater is collected from the sloping top and introduced into the hollow pillars for watering indoor plants, thus promoting the collection and utilization of rainwater resources. The interior of the greenhouse uses recycled materials such as concrete blocks and waste bricks to set up flower beds and exhibition stands. This design cleverly combines aesthetic value with practical value and spreads the ecological concept of recycling and “low carbon”. The greenhouse uses intelligent management technology, where soil humidity, temperature, plant growth, and experimental processes are recorded in digital form by related facilities, and monitoring data is connected to the school’s digital green management platform through the system platform. Intelligent management has enriched the school’s teaching system, making the teaching model more diverse and scientific, allowing students to experience the harmonious coexistence of technology and nature.


Different from most greenhouses in campuses, the “Tree of Life” greenhouse garden not only serves as a landscape structure forming a teaching space but also more meaningfully demonstrates biological knowledge to students through its unique shape through metaphorical methods, and rainwater collection, waste utilization, etc., also convey the concept of environmental education to students. The greenhouse embodies the innovative response of the school’s biology teaching needs, endows landscape with educational significance, and provides a reference model for future educational landscape design.




Shorlisted in the 2024 WLA Awards in the Built – Small Landscape Design category
A greenhouse garden: the “Tree of Life” in school
Location: Nanjing, P.R. China
Client: Nanjing No.1 Middle School
Landscape Architect: Nanjing Forestry University; Nanjing Gongyong Jinpu Digital Urban and Rural Construction Co., Ltd
Images: Courtesy of Nanjing Forestry University; Nanjing Gongyong Jinpu Digital Urban and Rural Construction Co., Ltd