Yichen Lu, Associated Professor of the Dept. of Environmental Design
The Award Ceremony of the ARCASIA Awards for Architecture 2019 has recently been held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. "Garden in an Urban Gap- Kehua Branch of Shenzhen Nanshan Foreign Language School" designed by Associate Professor Yichen Lu of the Department of Environmental Design became a gold winner of the "ARCASIA Awards for Architecture".
Lu's project, Kehua Branch of Shenzhen Nanshan Foreign Language School
Kehua Branch of Shenzhen Nanshan Foreign Language School is a nine-year school with a total floor area of 54,000 square meters. This school, located in the core area of Dayong in Nanshan District of Shenzhen, represents the last piece of the puzzle of the decade-long renovation project in Dayong, while witnessing the dramatic changes in this area from a "village in the city" to an urbanized "vertical forest". Surrounded by dense super-high-rise commercial residential buildings, this architectural complex bears the responsibility in the process of excessive urbanization in contemporary China.
The architect conceived the campus of Nanshan Foreign Language School as a streamlined horizontal garden, in sharp contrast to the dense vertical buildings of the urban residential community it serves. With the design of the campus, the architect attempted to break the boundary between the buildings and the surrounding communities, thus creating a low-rise linear mixture of closed, semi-enclosed and green open spaces. This building complex provides a "breathing" space for this residential community, while attracting students from the classrooms to outdoors, "returning" to a campus life, and re-establishing healthy ties with nature.
In this huge and gentle structure, the winding teaching building is like a continuously bifurcated river, dividing the site into six outdoor courtyards of different qualities, forming a semi-private island for teaching and other activities. Its six courtyards are: entrance courtyard, ceremonial front court, primary school courtyard, secondary school courtyard, sports courtyard and banyan courtyard-each corresponding to a major architectural function; at the same time, the orange ceiling on the first floor connects the campus with each courtyard. Free and linear functions can be realized for all teaching spaces without vertical climbing, and environmental protection such as sunshade systems, solar panels, passive energy saving measures, planted roofs and permeable bricks are adopted.
Resource: Yichen Lu
Editor: Ruohan Zhao
