This project is in one of the central neighborhoods in Shenzhen. The site is next to the Shenzhen Bay Border with Hong Kong and across the road from the future Shenzhen Opera House. Besides these public facilities, our site is next to high-end residential blocks. In addition, the location has extensive natural resources, the sea, and the river, from the Southside and Westside, respectively.
School is the place to learn; but also a place to socialize, play and grow up. Children spend most of their childhood in school; that is why the school has to be a place where they mingle, play, and enjoy, rather than just a formal public institution for lecturing.
Our goal is to connect outdoor and indoor activities more organic and focus on creating various shared and public spaces with different functions and atmospheres. Outdoor activities should be a valuable extension of school spaces. We create gathering spaces of various characters and sizes.
We recognized our project's position as transitional by two criteria:
Firstly our school building is a transitional zone between the sea and the city, from south to the north. Our project aims to connect these two sides smoothly and, at the same time, use this dichotomy as an advantage.
Secondly, the Hong Kong border is just a long fence along the east side and cuts urban fabric along the waterfront; our building should be a buffer between the city and this "urban wall."
Finally, our project on an urban scale needs to allow a compact urban structure by creating the front along the north, west, and south side.