Text description provided by the architects. In a high-density urban environment, what should a future school look like except for efficient teaching facilities? In the design of Shenzhen Hongshan Middle School, connectivity, sociality, and regionality are considered essential elements, and a series of vivid spaces are created for a creative and explorative environment, enabling students to grow up better in an exploratory and uninhibited school.
School Characters. Multiple floors to create a vertical school. The Project is located in Longhua District, Shenzhen. In a high-density environment, the project design starts from the characters of the school and pays attention to more inspiring spatial characteristics.
White school to face the future. The area where the Project is located is facing urban renewal. On the west and south sides of the Project, there are high-density urban villages with an overall gray and old tone. Therefore, white is chosen for Hongshan Middle School as its main color to look clean and pure, bringing bright color to the surrounding urban atmosphere.
Elevated playground for dynamic and static partition. The Project is adjacent to Xinqu Avenue, the main road in Shenzhen. So vertical superimposition of large spaces’ functions is used. The playground is elevated 10 meters along Xinqu Avenue. Below the playground is the student canteen, as well as the sports areas like the basketball court and badminton court on the second floor. While shielding noise, this design optimizes the layout of large spaces’ functions in a school of high plot ratio and forms a comfortable urban environment.
Vertical integration to concentrate functions. In order to improve the efficiency of land use, the buildings are divided into upper and lower spaces, and new ground spaces are created vertically. The upper part is teaching space, and the lower part is large-space auxiliary rooms. With a central courtyard, the buildings are scattered and connected to stimulate the atmosphere of communication and learning. Meanwhile, the roof platform is used for sports activity, which forms a functional connection with the sports complex on the north side. The open roof platform forms the school’s second ground, and the balconies of the teaching building and dormitory become viewing spaces.
Space Design. Reshape the inner and outer courtyards from the perspective of connectivity
In the design of a future school, designers have been thinking about how to create opportunities for connection, how to arouse interest in communication and learning at any time, and how to integrate vitality from nature.
Inner and outer courtyards. The building consists of a branch structure in the form of verandahs, ensuring an efficient combination of teaching modules. Through the east-west connecting corridors on the fourth and fifth floors, three enclosed courtyards are formed. The inner and outer spaces of courtyards form a spatial division, but the east-west direction provides an open and spacious structure.
Multi-level spatial connection. The school design connects different public outdoor spaces and teaching areas to allow free access by students within 10 minutes between classes. On the first floor, a series of exhibition spaces and activity spaces are formed through overhead spaces and shared halls so as to accommodate diverse learning and activities. Large steps are provided for entering the second floor, ensuring a flexible space for gathering. The roof sports field is on the third floor. The upper and lower parts are connected through the sports field, and students can reach them through two-story paths at most. The slanted connecting corridor in the atrium connects four groups of teaching buildings on three floors, shortening the overall distance and avoiding the problem that teachers and students going upstairs and downstairs between different teaching buildings. The circular spaces on the fourth and fifth floors strengthen the connection between classrooms, allowing communication, sharing, and interaction to happen naturally in open spaces.
Multi-dimensional sharing. Connect spaces for interaction from the perspective of sociality. As the concept of future school, sociability runs through every space. From the public spaces to the shared halls, opportunities for interaction are always there.
The layout of the small, medium, and large public spaces. For "small" public spaces, the corridor ends in teaching buildings are partially enlarged. Therefore, a corridor, a linear space originally only for walking, is transformed into a place to stay, naturally forming a miniature place for chat and discussion between 3-5 students.
"Medium" public spaces include the connecting corridors between teaching buildings, the overhead floors, and the shared halls. Connecting corridors with a span of nearly 20 meters are structurally free of columns, therefore more open and spacious. By careful design of a garden and various facilities for relaxation, the overhead courtyard on the first floor is not only a natural place for discussion and study but also a venue for sports competitions. "Large" public space is the sports field for carrying a variety of outdoor sports. It is closely connected with the other two kinds of public spaces.
Shared halls. The shared hall directly facing the main entrance of the school is superimposed with the large steps to connect the first to third floors within the entire school, optimizing the movement for students to access each functional space. The Steam Center on the second floor takes "Hongshan Culture" as the design element to form the overall cultural design language and create a spiritual fortress in a unique space. The interior lighting of Steam Center uses luminous strips, and the air outlets of air conditioners also draw on this design language and are concealed uniformly.
Architectural Expression. Facade aesthetics are based on regional characteristics. In response to the hot and rainy weather in Shenzhen, the school design fully considers the characteristics of the subtropical climate in the Lingnan region, so as to create an architectural expression with excellent lighting effects.
Ventilation design. The ceiling of the shared hall at the entrance is not in a closed state. It consists of the same basic units in a diagonal arrangement with gaps left. Each basic unit is joined with the upper and lower edges of two hollow trusses, which are convenient for ventilation, smoke exhaust, and protection from rain and realize the "draught" effect of traditional Lingnan-style architectural patios.
Shading system/ The classrooms are designed with double corridors, using the corridors on both sides to naturally form shading. The façade of the teaching area adopts a large grille to meet the lighting requirements and meanwhile insulate the sunlight from entering the classroom violently. The colored glazing glass on the awning roof of the shared hall can resist certain sunlight and ultraviolet rays. The convex aluminum panels on balconies on the facade of the dormitory area can shade the sunlight and meanwhile present a sense of wavy rhythm, forming the rhythm of the facade. With the pioneering reform of education in Shenzhen, how coordinating the rapid construction and building quality has become a difficulty in civil engineering. As the general design contractor, Capol International & Associates Group has undertaken three schools in Longhua (the reconstruction and expansion of Hongshan Middle School, Gezhi High School, and Guanlan Middle School) in the mode of design-led EPC. By effectively connecting various majors and related units and overcoming the obstacles of the epidemic, Capol International & Associates Group has completed these projects in only one and a half years from design to delivery, letting the future school come into reality.
