British School in Tokyo

The British School in Tokyo is the largest international school in Tokyo. With a 30-year history and around 700 students from more than 50 countries, the school offers a British-style educational curriculum to the international community of Tokyo. 

To meet the school’s vision of a rich learning environment surrounded by nature, the studio worked carefully to incorporate outdoor learning and play spaces at each one of its seven levels, allowing for lush planting and views out to the surrounding landscape. 

Sitting adjacent to the project’s main tower, the school is situated on land that was previously the Azabudai Post Office, one of Tokyo’s few surviving pre-war buildings. The studio worked with local ceramic manufacturers to develop a unique mix of brick tiles that hark back to the original tiles of the post office building. Familiar elements from the old building also appear on the façade and are woven together to create a human-scaled new building that stands in contrast to the slick commercial facades that surround it.