A Place to Belong: Reimagining Boarding Schools as Communities for Connection and Belonging | Masters Design Project

Site Context

In March 2025, the Ministry of Education Malaysia announced plans to launch a pilot project for vertical schools in Putrajaya, Penang, and Kuala Lumpur, responding to increasing urban population pressure and limited land availability. With Kuala Lumpur’s population density reaching 8,546 persons/km², compared with 104 persons/km² nationally, this project explores the Vertical Boarding School as a potential outcome of this initiative, located in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

The site is situated within a high-density urban environment characterized by car-centric streets, limited safe gathering spaces, commercial activity, and little sense of youth ownership. These conditions raise a broader question: Is the contemporary city truly designed for teenagers?

At the same time, childhood is increasingly shaped by digital media. A study by Dr. Rozita Wahab found that 51.6% of children in Peninsular Malaysia used digital devices independently before the age of four. With teenagers spending significant time on social media and online gaming, opportunities for face-to-face interaction are diminishing, alongside concerns such as cyberbullying and social isolation.

The proposed boarding school therefore goes beyond education, integrating learning, living, recreation, community, and social spaces to create a supportive environment where teenagers can meet, communicate, express themselves, and belong.

Design Process

The design process began with cluster living, informed by Dunbar’s theory of meaningful social relationships, which suggests that closer connections are more easily formed within smaller social groups. This principle was translated into four spatial clusters: Private, Living, Social, and Public, which correspond to four everyday principles: Live, Play, Work, and Share. The arrangement provides a gradual transition from intimate spaces to larger communal environments, helping students establish familiarity and belonging within the boarding school.

The tower accommodates 1,500 secondary students, teachers, and studios for external guests. The initial design separated teachers and students into distinct zones; however, this created excessive spatial barriers and reinforced unnecessary hierarchy. The design was subsequently revised towards a more integrated community, where students and teachers share and interact within the same vertical neighborhood, while an independent guest tower maintains security and operational separation.

Interaction is further strengthened at two scales. Intra-community, through shared living rooms on every fourth floor; inter-community, through larger communal facilities located at the Lifestyle Floor, Clubhouse, and Rooftop.

Final Outcome

The final proposal translates the cluster-living concept into a vertical boarding school that balances community, privacy, security, and future adaptability. The building mass responds to its urban context, with the tower at the major road junction kept as the lowest volume, while heights gradually increase across the site to establish a contextual transition with the surrounding skyline.

A standalone studio tower accommodates visiting parents, external guests, and international students, separating visitor circulation from the student residential areas and minimizing unauthorized access. A controlled link bridge connects the studio and student towers, allowing authorized users to access shared facilities through an access card system.

Within the student towers, communal living rooms are distributed between residential clusters, transforming circulation from purely functional space into opportunities for everyday interaction. Open staircases and shared terraces encourage movement across floors while creating visual connections between communities.

Finally, the modular and asymmetrical massing allows future extensions to be incorporated seamlessly, enabling the school to adapt and grow without compromising its overall architectural identity.

Conclusion: Ultimately, the Vertical Boarding School reimagines education as a community-driven environment where learning extends beyond the classroom. By integrating living, play, work, and sharing, the project creates a safe, adaptable, and inclusive place where teenagers can connect, grow, and belong.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]