An Urban Garden Indeed! The Nanshan Foreign Language School is Exuberant without Overstating Itself

An urban garden indeed! The Nanshan Foreign Language School is exuberant without overstating itself. Its seamless flow of program and circulation interconnects with Shenzhen’s electric urban context, negotiating a compact, complex site. Its contemporary, consistent tectonic in the horizontal dimension provides an unexpected counterpoint to the surrounding vertical development. The building’s massing is clear and connected, utilising the existing topography to create terraced levels of program stitched together with elevated walkways. The interior of the building is one continuous spatial movement that aims forward and is dynamic, reflecting the ideals of a school.

Nanshan Foreign Language School is a 54,000sqm elementary and middle school campus, comprising regular and specialised classrooms, a library, gymnasium, swimming pool, auditorium, dining halls, and playgrounds. Located in Shenzhen’s DaChong neighborhood, the campus represents the last piece of a decade-long development, which saw the area change from a compact industrial outskirt into a vertical city. 

The campus is conceived as a sweeping, horizontal garden that stands in contrast to the vertical urban environment it serves. The design uses low-rise bar arrangements of staggered classrooms that sweep the site from east to west, chasing every available square inch of sunlight. In turn, the sinuous motion of classroom ribbons generates a fluid sequence of outdoor spaces tailored to the specific needs of each teaching area. 

Project Information

Project Name: School As Urban Garden – Nanshan Foreign Language School

Location: China

Architect: Yichen Lu