Organizers hailed the boarding school's innovative design, which incorporates large windows, open-air spaces, rooftop park, and a treehouse-like rooms and corridors. Set against a backdrop of houses and buildings that all look like one another, the "floating forest" school stands out in look and feel.

In handing out its top award among more than 250 shortlisted projects, the World Architecture Festival committee noted the school's design as encouraging walking and other forms of physical activity and, moreover, creating a space where "time can be wasted seriously." Participating in the design of the school was the Zhejiang University of Technology Engineering Design Group.

Ningbo is a city in Zhejiang province, on the south edge of the Yangtze Delta region, nearly directly south of Shanghai and not far from the East China Sea. The famed 22-mile-long Hangzhou Bay Bridge links Ningbo and Shanghai.

The World Architecture Festival began in 2008 in Barcelona, where it stayed until 2013, when it moved to Singapore. Berlin was the host city for the event in 2016 and 2017, Amsterdam took over for 2018 and 2019, and Lisbon was the setting for the festival in 2020–2022.