Award-winning design for a world-class education!

Envisione Studio’s full interior rejuvenation of a 60-year-old campus into a modern, bilingual international school – DSHK has just been recognised with an International Property Award for Best Public Service Interior. The brief was beautifully simple yet profoundly challenging: take a worn, outdated facility and breathe new life into it – transforming dark corridors, cellular classrooms, and barren courtyards into a bright, flexible, and inspiring environment worthy of a progressive international education.

At the heart of the design is the Tangram – a traditional Chinese puzzle chosen to celebrate the school’s cultural heritage while symbolising spatial reasoning, academic rigour, and the school’s constructivist pedagogy, where students grow at their own pace.

Rather than erasing the past, the design embraced a “less is more” approach. Existing Bauhaus architectural elements are carefully retained and enhanced through refinement, improving lighting, better organisation, and through interventions that brought clarity to previously cluttered spaces. Corridors were reinvented as bright ‘learning streets’, classrooms were redesigned with integrated storage and flexible layouts, and existing materials were repurposed wherever possible to maximise both sustainability and budget efficiency.

Equally important was creating an environment that feels welcoming and intuitive for children of all ages. We have designed ”learning through play”, every detail was considered for comfort, safety, flexibility, and exploration. Libraries, classrooms, specialist spaces, and circulation areas were all designed to support different learning behaviours while encouraging curiosity and interaction beyond the classroom itself.

This was a sensitive rejuvenation, not an erasure. The true reward is seeing a campus that now breathes, teaches, and welcomes – a vibrant, functioning reality delivered against every expectation.

The Challenges

(https://www.linkedin.com/posts/envisionestudio_envisionestudio-interiordesign-daltonschoolhongkong-activity-7468096696997232640-kJzO?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAiMZgsBfi0vP1C6fL-KO4VCKzLAmyFJStA)

Envisione were first engaged in late 2023. The vision was ambitious: to rejuvenate a 1960s campus into a contemporary international learning environment in time for the September 2024 academic year. With the existing local school still operating on site until June 2024, the timeline left only a narrow window to complete the transformation of a 250,000 sq ft multi-stream facility.

To turn this project into reality, we worked closely with our client, creating spaces for open dialogue, rapid sketching, testing ideas, and making decisions together in real time. This highly collaborative approach allowed the project to move with agility while ensuring every design move remained aligned with the school’s evolving vision and identity.

Beyond upgrading the campus to international education standards, the project was also about redefining the school experience and shaping the identity of Dalton School itself. From the interior architecture to the development of the school’s visual identity and signature Dalton blue, every detail was carefully considered to create a cohesive and recognisable experience woven throughout the campus. Outdated interiors were transformed into light-filled, flexible, and technology-enabled learning environments that truly reflect Dalton School.

Despite the tight programme, complex phasing, and simultaneous coordination between design, procurement and construction, the shared dedication across the entire team made it possible.

Dalton School is not only a transformed campus and an award-winning interior, but also the result of a deeply collaborative journey shaped by trust, creativity and collective effort.