HENN has designed the first Sino-French aeronautics campus plan for Hangzhou, China. Supported by the French Government, the public project aims to welcome 10,000 students and researchers. Balancing contemporary design with traditional Chinese cultural heritage, the project was designed to integrate the masterplan with the natural topography of the site.
The new campus plan is made as a cooperation between the Chinese and the French governments to promote aviation research and innovation. As the team explains, the design concept refers to the traditional culture of Liangzhu, a UNESCO World Heritage site situated in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The plans includes a formal and infrastructural focus on the water system: canals and docks are established within the existing water supply streams to form eight campus islands and two technology islands. Each functional cluster is surrounded by the river system and a large garden.
HENN explains that the industry-academia axis and an urban landscape axis form the overall planning skeleton. The former connects the North and the South with courtyards, squares, and roads, while combining public teaching, labs and service function buildings. The landscape axis connects the green corridor on the West side of the city with the East-West main entrance of the campus and extends to the mountain on the East side, becoming the main landscape corridor of the campus.
At the heart of the project is the central building with a "flying roof" concept. The public and shared functions are distributed among the different parts of the central building: research labs, classrooms, conference halls, canteen and sports halls. These are arranged around a central courtyard and linked by the interconnecting roof scape. The lightweight concave roof floats on top of the main building and opens itself towards the sky. Incorporating ancient cultural elements of Liangzhu, rough natural materials and masonry texture are used for the facades of the buildings.
News via HENN
