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Hefei No.45 Middle School Fu Rong Campus School by Leigh & Orange Limited |
Home > Winners > Design #63409 >Interview |
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FS: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
L&: Just like any other fast-growing cities in China, Hefei needs extra dimensions to accompany her economy growth. As the city expands, new districts are being planned and developed, and public facilities are becoming more important for establishing socially sustainable communities. From the lands use point of view, schools are not the most efficiently use of the resources due to their limited operation hours. And therefore, this project is to pursue the idea of integrating mixed-use concept into Fu Rong No. 45 Middle School so that it is not only a purposely-built learning space for students, but also opened to public events and cited as the living space for the neighborhood.
FS: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
L&: This project is responsibly built and contributed to the local community after completion. It effectively met all requirements demanded by local government and the operator. With a total of 27000 square meters, the school comprised 42 classroomsand a variety of teaching, experimenting and activity rooms. The project strictly controlled the quality of construction and design due to its function as educational space for relatively young students. Different to traditional approach of only meeting statutory requirements, the design team aimed to bring further innovated modes of education and multifunctional interactive spaces into the design. By providing a rich and diverse learning environment between students, furthermore creating sharable and flexible public spaces for surrounding local communities. This concept of maximum use of resources outside the teaching time and adding community value was greatlyappreciated by the local government, school and developer. The design team worked closely with the government, school, and developers, communicating, evaluating and giving feedback throughout the whole designing process ensuring the best design and construction quality of the project.
FS: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
L&: The team considers this middle school as a public venue, it should be inviting and engaging, and hence the design of the school is twofold: a clear delineation between programs for the school-only and functions that can also be shared with the neighborhoods is paramount. A central “interactive” spine has been introduced to bisect the building as well as the functions into two zones: to the east are 42 nos. of classrooms, and teaching facilities, while to the west overlooking to the sports field are areas shared with the public, including library, public theatre, canteen, indoor sports hall and assembly hall. This central spine, in turn, acts as a transitional space between private and public programs.
FS: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
L&: Different from conventional education mode, the team believes one can learn more from human interactions. The project aims to create more social interaction chances through architectural interventions by creating ad-hoc and pop-up space spattered across the building. These multi-levels interactive spaces are in forms of staircases, platforms, capsules rooms, pocket space, outdoor decks and courtyards, and have been materialized in two ways: firstly, the programs on both sides of the spine are set in semi-detached boxes which are arranged in such a way that a series of outdoor courtyards space in between them are created; secondly, the central “interactive spine” contains not only circulation space but also pop-up gathering spaces and multi-purposes rooms in various levels, both indoor and semi-outdoor, which encourage students to exchange, communicate and explore not only among themselves and the teachers, but also with the public.
FS: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
L&: Environment consideration was one of the project’s key concepts. The design approach deployed passive sustainable strategies to adapt to the extreme summer and winter climatic conditions of Hefei. All the classrooms were in liner slabblock form and north-south oriented with open corridors along the south side so as to promote cross-ventilation, and also the corridors can serve as a sun shading device in the summer, while in the winter time, they allowed low angle sun to come in to heat up the indoor space, to prevent snow and ice from accumulating along the corridors which could be dangerous to children. To the west of the central spine, the programs boxes shared with the public are basically west facing. On one hand, it could keep the noise out from the classrooms to the east, and at the same time on the west façade, in-situ concrete fins were installed to prevent excess heat gain and glare in summer while maintaining spectator views to the sports field.
FS: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
L&: Delivering many design innovations and at the same time maintaining construction quality within limited time required by the school was one of the main challenges. In order to achieve high quality goals in limited time, the implementation and construction techniques of relevant design innovations have been fully communicated by all parties during the design stage. Effective teamwork was achieved between school operator, developer, design team, local design institute and the construction team throughout the project, which guaranteed the project’s safety, efficiency and high quality implementation.
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
L&: Detail design of the project focused on quality, durability and buildability. Since the maintenance will be handed over to the school with expenditure derived from the public, the design team carefully selected materials based on factors of durability and long-term upkeep of the building. Such as the public corridor floor employed the use of ceramic tiles rather than the common use of plaster finishing; although ceramic tiles have a higher cost, and the construction period is relatively longer, however it is more durable and easier to clean.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A' Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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