School catchment housing is a spatial outcome of China’s proximity-based compulsory education system. Today, it faces growing challenges, including rising school district premiums, declining birth rates, and the aging conditions of older residential compounds.

Many of these neighborhoods, however, are located in central Shanghai, where high locational value meets urgent renewal needs. Focusing on school catchment housing in central Shanghai, this project explores how these aging communities can become a new spatial model for future education and living.

The proposal rethinks the boundary between school and housing through an integrated education-residence system. By extending learning into public space and linking educational spaces with surrounding outdoor areas, it creates an open “education belt.” Inspired by Herman Hertzberger’s idea of deschooling, the design forms a sequence of education, transition, public space, transition, and residence, allowing openness and coexistence while keeping each function relatively independent.