Wang Weijen Architecture

The Campus Planning for the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shenzhen brings together architectural typology of courtyard with the landscape terrain and its mountain form, creates a central green mall allowing nature to become the dominating sublime. Replacing the formality of classical symmetry in Jefferson’s campus prototype, the design articulates academic programs into one mega-block with a sequence of courtyard spaces, parallel to the central green while lining up against the city edge away from the mountain green. Allowing the water and nature to flow into the green mall through the valley, the design also arranged a series of separate pavilion buildings along the foothill across the central green: library, students center, administration, dormitory and conference hall, creating visual and ecological corridors spacing in-between the pavilions.

The planning takes the natural terrain as the overall composition in contrasting to the academic mega-form, incorporating the natural valley and water integrating with the campus infrastructure system for rain water collection and recycling. The square quadrant with a sunken plaza in the middle of the central green not only connecting the library and student’s center to the academic spine, it also moderates the campus contour and coordinate with different datum levels. By leaving the nature alone and gives way to the mountain and landscape, the mega-form as a continuous aggregation contrasting to the independent pavilions array along the landscape, becomes even stronger as a form in the planning diagram.