ARANYA IDEAS CAMP
Atelier TeamMinus
ARCHITECTS
Atelier TeamMinus
ENGINEERING
Thuadi
OWNER REPRESENTATIVE
Yin Ma
ARCHITECT IN CHARGE
Li Zhang
HVAC ENGINEERS
Peng Guo, Laiquan Gao
OPERATOR REPRESENTATIVE
Wei Zhao
DESIGN TEAM
Wen, Cong Li, Zihao Pan
OPERATOR
Idea Camp Development Centre
ELECTRONIC ENGINEERS
Jinsong Huang, Wen Gu
CONTRACTOR REPRESENTATIVE
Yuxiang Liu
INTERIOR DESIGNERS
Li Zhang, Guanglu Dou, Zishen Wen, Yingxiu Lu
STRUCTURE ENGINEERS
Mingzhu Wang, Xiaohong He
OWNER
Qinhuangdao Tian-Xing-Jiu-Zhou Tourism Development, Ltd.
LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS
Hang Kou,Ran Tao, Guanglu Dou
CONTRACTOR
Changli County Constructions & Decorations, Ltd.
LIGHTING DESIGNERS
Xin Zhang, Xiaowei Han, Bentian Niu, Bo Tang
LANDSCAPE
BJF (Beijing) International Landscape Architecture, Ltd. / Atelier TeamMinus
LIGHTING
Atelier Zhang Xin
PHOTOGRAPHS
Lei Bu
AREA
4700 m²
YEAR
2017
LOCATION
Qinhuangdao, China
CATEGORY
Educational Architecture
Text description provided by architect.
The building is built for Qixing Education, a successful Chinese company that offers summer and winter school programs for children and the youth.
Their pedagogy is to take the Chinese children, mostly products of the one-child policy, out to a temporary community of their own, and get close to nature while learning various skills in culture, craft, and socialization.
The building sits amid a strip of sand dunes, which runs along the middle of a seaside weekend housing development inside the Aranya complex.
A continuous, spiral ramp that starts from one side of the sand dunes, circles around two courtyards, reaching its highest point before landing down to the ground on the other side of the dunes.
Of the two courtyards, the outer one is designed to be kept open and used for collective activities; the inner one is framed by the classrooms on the ground floor and the dorms on the first floor, which is used for private activities.
Along with its entire length, the ramp helps to form a series of spaces both above and beneath it.
In the lower part, the ramp forms a temporary spectators' stand in the outer courtyard,covering an outdoor cafe area with large openings in the walls framing views to the dunes and the playgrounds.
In the middle part, the top of the ramp provides panoramic views of the sea and the distant plains; below the ramp, there are flat spaces for children’s games.
In the ending part, the ramp takes a quick descend to the playgrounds below.
When there is no summer/winter school activity, the ramp is open to the local residents.
The different heights expand and slopes of the activity spaces are to encourage the youth to move their bodies more creatively.