Design Department on new campus, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute
Chongqing, People's Republic of China · 2006
Photo · Jiakun Architects
An aerial precedent demonstrating how multi-story red-brick academic blocks can be clustered to form intimate courtyards while integrating seamlessly into a dense, forested landscape.
- What we like about this project
- External concrete staircases zigzagging down the solid brick gable ends of the buildings.
Materials
- red-brick
- concrete
- clay-tile
- asphalt
- glass
Visual identifiers
- red-brick-facade
- external-concrete-stairs
- campus-courtyard
- green-roofs
- forested-campus
Style tags
- regionalist
- vernacular-modern
- industrial-heritage
Visual tags
- academic-campus
- adaptive-vernacular
- courtyard-typology
- urban-edge
- brick-architecture
- Geometry
- A cluster of linear, multi-story rectangular blocks arranged in a loose, non-orthogonal ring around central courtyards. The buildings feature pitched roofs, flat green roofs, and external concrete staircases attached to their gable ends.
- Facade system
- Load-bearing or clad red-brick masonry with punched window openings and concrete structural accents.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete frame with brick infill or cladding
- Spatial scale
- A campus scale featuring four- to five-story institutional buildings integrated with pedestrian-friendly plazas and vehicular parking pockets.
- Lighting
- Soft, diffused daylight under an overcast sky, casting gentle shadows and highlighting the texture of the brickwork.
- Atmosphere
- A quiet, academic enclave where heavy brick masses are softened by surrounding dense green canopies.
- Environmental context
- Set within a lush, heavily forested campus edge with a distant view of dense high-rise urban development and mountains under a hazy sky.
- Spatial experience
- The arrangement creates a series of semi-enclosed, interconnected courtyards and pedestrian pathways nestled within a dense forest canopy, transitioning from natural landscape to structured academic plazas.
- Composition rhythm
- The buildings are arranged in a dynamic, radial-like composition around central voids, with repetitive window bays and external stair runs providing a rhythmic texture.
- Style reading
- Contemporary regionalism with industrial vernacular influences
- Program
- Art school studios, classrooms, and administrative offices
- Perspective
- Aerial/Site
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- red-brick, concrete, clay-tile, asphalt, glass
- Visual identifiers
- red-brick-facade, external-concrete-stairs, campus-courtyard, green-roofs, forested-campus
- Style tags
- regionalist, vernacular-modern, industrial-heritage
- Visual tags
- academic-campus, adaptive-vernacular, courtyard-typology, urban-edge, brick-architecture
- Geometry
- A cluster of linear, multi-story rectangular blocks arranged in a loose, non-orthogonal ring around central courtyards. The buildings feature pitched roofs, flat green roofs, and external concrete staircases attached to their gable ends.
- Facade system
- Load-bearing or clad red-brick masonry with punched window openings and concrete structural accents.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete frame with brick infill or cladding
- Spatial scale
- A campus scale featuring four- to five-story institutional buildings integrated with pedestrian-friendly plazas and vehicular parking pockets.
- Lighting
- Soft, diffused daylight under an overcast sky, casting gentle shadows and highlighting the texture of the brickwork.
- Atmosphere
- A quiet, academic enclave where heavy brick masses are softened by surrounding dense green canopies.
- Environmental context
- Set within a lush, heavily forested campus edge with a distant view of dense high-rise urban development and mountains under a hazy sky.
- Spatial experience
- The arrangement creates a series of semi-enclosed, interconnected courtyards and pedestrian pathways nestled within a dense forest canopy, transitioning from natural landscape to structured academic plazas.
- Composition rhythm
- The buildings are arranged in a dynamic, radial-like composition around central voids, with repetitive window bays and external stair runs providing a rhythmic texture.
- Style reading
- Contemporary regionalism with industrial vernacular influences
- Program
- Art school studios, classrooms, and administrative offices
- Perspective
- Aerial/Site
- Discipline
- architecture