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Architects: YUARCHITECTS
- Area: 35000 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:YUARCHITECTS, Bizheng Luo
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Manufacturers: Foshan Lighting, Jin Aluminum, Nippon Paint
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Lead Architect: Dao Yu
Text description provided by the architects. Shekou Primary School was established in 1945 which provided basic education for fishermen's children at that time. Shekou Middle School, as its counterpart, was founded adjacent in 1970, divided by a mere wall with Shekou Primary School for decades. In 2003 the two institutions merged under the name of Shekou School. In late 2022, as the Shekou School was added to the final list of the "Hundred Schools Renewal" plan in Shenzhen, it triggers a chance of this renovation project.
Current Conditions & Strategies
Decades of fragmented renovations had resulted in ambiguous spatial relationships between buildings and their surrounding external space. As the total construction time is restricted within 2 summer vacation periods, the core issue of renovation focuses mainly on two aspects: resolving essential functional needs and redefining a more appropriate relationship between buildings and external spaces. Meanwhile, each new gesture was conceived not as an erasure of the existence, but as a dialogue with the site's embedded texture, allowing old and new to coexist and creating a new identity of the campus.
First Courtyard "Vestibule": Flow & Gathering
Shekou School sits at the topographical high point of the district. The first open space after entering from the south gate is an irregular outdoor area which lack of basic spatial enclosure. This transitional zone harbored three fragmented parts: a provisional dining area at the far west end, a simple school gate on the south side, and an abandoned triangular corner at the east end. Next to this triangular corner was the existing kitchen and logistics entrance, which locates far from the western dining area creating a functional problem.
This irregular space after entering the south gate could be interpreted as an oversized "vestibule", the core strategy is to create a spatial hierarchy reorganizing the pedestrian flow and gathering. We conceived a covered pathway system tracing the serpentine contours of the "vestibule"，integrating three parts as a whole: the expanded dining space on the west side, the new gate on the south side, and the newly added dining space in the triangle corner on the east side. The continuous covered pathway engages in a symbiotic interface with the mature trees along the campus boundary, bringing a sense of enclosure to the vestibule.
After the renovation, the new school gate grew out from the original terrain visually, emphasizing the solidity of the volume. The duality of the gate interface allows different gesture: on the urban side as a large-span cave, while on the campus side as colonnaded facade. The column positions aligns with the paving grid of the square's original stonework, and the "absence" of the 6cm high column base at the bottom articulates a dialogue between old and new, bringing a sense of sculptural quality to the new gate.
The covered pathway transforms into several dining platforms following the natural slope in the triangle aera, formulating different courtyards with appropriate scales, creating a comfortable dining environment. The angular contours of these platforms adapt to the site's triangular geometry and existing trees precisely, simultaneously inspiring a dynamic umbrella-like framework geometry for the overhead steel canopy structure. Within the compact triangular site, the green color of the platform allows an intimate relationship with the existing trees and the aluminum panel with vertical texture also responds to the subtle scale of the landscape, creating a distinctive spatial atmosphere and formulating a more positive interface to the street.
Second Courtyard "Atrium": Volume and Surface
The second courtyard enclosed by several buildings is a regular square where the activities of students are relatively concentrated, like a large atrium. We improved the quality of this external space mainly by dealing with the initial negative vertical interface: We complete the fragmented volume of the building and transform the initial window-wall system facade into a column-and-slab motif merely by painting, which gives the building a relative open gesture towards the public playground. Meanwhile, the formerly protruding central curtain wall was removed and reversed as a semi-outdoor "performance platform", creating an intimate viewing dynamic with the children's energetic activities.
Third Courtyard "Living Room": Resonance with Landscape
The third courtyard in Shekou school is the most public space — the sports field. It functions as an outdoor living room gathering the entire school community. Instead of a clear distinction between buildings and landscape, we conceive buildings and existing trees as a symphonic interface. The north facade of the Art Building performs as a visual anchor point of the "outdoor living room" along its long axis. After completing the building's volume, the white loggia facade formulates a formal face towards the outdoor open space and acts simultaneously as a quiet background nestled among the trees.
For the west building clusters nestled within tree canopies, we implemented a forest-green steel grating system across their facades and rooftops, covering AC units on the facade and defining an ark-like layer on the top of the building sheltering a public platform. The porous steel screens create a dynamic veil that filters sunlight into ever-shifting patterns of shadow and luminance as an organic dialogue resonating with the surrounding landscape. In the garden between the building cluster, a small garden bridge as a twin counterpart of the Big Ark echoes an analogous architectural language, forming a three-dimensional interplay, creating an immersive spatial experience.
