French Internacional School
1606-HEN-HKG.HK-2015.18
Architect: Henning Larsen Architects
Client: The French International School
Status: Project (2015) On going
Location: Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Climate: Humid subtropical, Temperate
Material: Concrete
Environment: Urban
Visualizer: Studio
Scale: 18.000 ㎡ Large
Types: Education, School

The new campus in Tseung Kwan O district will serve 1,050 students ranging from kindergarten to middle school. The campus’ larger purpose is to act as a centre for French culture in Hong Kong.

With its adaptable and flexible layouts, its wealth of differently scaled and multiple purposed spaces catering for future learning behaviors, interactive gardens and exposed building technologies, the school offers a stimulating and innovative learning environment for the pupils.

The campus consists of two bars elevated above a 3,000 m2 sports- and playground and a 500 m2 botanical garden. Remaining on ground floor is a 300 seat auditorium, a 600 seat canteen and a kindergarten. The bars contain respectively the Primary School and the Middle School with a large gymnasium and a swimming pool. The roofs allow for another two playgrounds and educative gardens.

The main identity of the campus is however concentrated in the façade of the Sport and Middle School block, consisting of 1,000 colored ceramic sun breakers, each adopted and customized by a student. The façade will therefore become a solid symbol of the diversity within the school and the involvement of each student coloring its future.

Green initiatives

The layout of the bars is optimized to let prevailing eastern winds ventilate the campus outdoor and indoor. This orientation coincides with the ambition to reduce heat gain from sun by maximizing classroom facades facing north and south.

The east façades are designed to collect winds and lead them into the heart of the school, creating a controllable variable airflow for the natural ventilation of the classes. Larger spaces like the gymnasium use a stack effect to create natural ventilation even on windless days.

24 large trees will cover the ground floor under a green canopy. The Native Garden is a densely planted botanical garden designed to showcase the Southern Chinese biotope. It is divided into islands allocated to each villa for study and care. The educational garden offers planters for classes and benefits from rainwater collection and compost from the canteen waste. The experimental garden displays some of the building technologies such as sun panels, solar water heaters, windmills.

Surrounding the entire school, a fence designed to become a vertical garden, filtering views and cleaning winds from dust – improving vital air quality.

Collaborator: AGC Design | Consultant: WSP, Marshall Day Acoustics, Inhabit, Lichtvision | Landscape: BTP + Aecom | Post date: 23/09/2016 | Views: 6.073