Qianhai Guiwan School is a nine-year, continuous-education campus sited in the Guiwan subdistrict at the heart of Shenzhen’s Qianhai Cooperation Zone. The school is located on a fast-developing waterfront corridor between established residential blocks and planned office developments. The architect treats the campus as an extension of the city, using forward-looking, experimental design to turn a dense site into a micro-city that opens educational space to the community. They strike a careful balance between public accessibility and student privacy, making the school feel both a welcoming public hub and a quiet landscape where kids can explore.

01 Site Strategy & General Layout

Qianhai Guiwan School spans three city blocks from north to south, stretching a total length of 300 meters. In response to the site’s elongated north–south orientation and narrow east–west width, the architect placed the teaching buildings on the north side, where sunlight conditions are more favorable. The middle and primary school classrooms are located on the east and west sides, respectively, and are connected by a zigzag circulation spine. This zigzag path is envisioned as an extendable ‘green carpet’, which, through its stretching, creates multiple permeable spaces and elevated areas. Above the green carpet lies a tiered ‘knowledge garden’, while beneath it is a series of raised campus spaces supported by large ‘mushroom columns’.

02 Sectional Approach And Elevation Response

Thanks to a ‘double-ground’ spatial strategy, internal and external campus circulation is organized and separated through section. The site has roughly a one floor level height difference between the roads on the east and west sides of the site, requiring the campus to connect three distinct elevations. By raising the playground, the architect effectively structured the site into three sectional bands, each responding to a different ground condition. This sectional strategy allows the campus edge to become elastic and permeable, rather than fixed and rigid.

03 Above The Green Carpet: The Knowledge Garden

The ‘Knowledge Garden’ is a semi-outdoor space that provides both shade and natural ventilation. Located between the primary and middle school zones, it is connected to the 400-meter track, together forming the campus’s ‘second ground level’. Viewed from south to north, the campus reads like a series of terraced fields, where vertical level differences are transformed into gentle horizontal slopes. The design intention is to give each grade its own dedicated garden while also allowing shared access to this open landscape.

04 Beneath The Green Carpet: Creative Platform

The ‘Creative Platform’ is located below the Knowledge Garden. Making use of the elevated structural space, the architect defines a multi-functional space that accommodates activities such as school exhibitions, art festivals, and theater events. It is envisioned as a vibrant campus hub that fosters interaction and a shared sense of community. The platform adopts a bowl-shaped, earth-sheltered roof supported by large, irregular columns. Structurally, it employs an expressive ‘umbrella’ scheme: a central ‘mushroom column’ carries the load, with horizontal beams and slabs radiating outward to form a clear and coherent structural and spatial order.