The architecture of Shenzhen University

Abstract

As a student, assistant, lecturer and now a professor, I have been living on campus for more than three decades; but I have never felt there was enough room for the students and faculty to study, work and live. Generally, there have always been two major problems the large number of people and the small amount of construction funds in those countries of Asia such as China with a very large population. I think that we Chinese architects and the capital construction authorities should first try to get more space for meeting our people’s basic needs and must use less money for more space and more service. The duty of architects is not only to work as engineers, we should also try our best to create a pleasurable environment to accommodate human beings in the totality of their physical and psychological lives and address their various pursuits and intentions. We can draw some lessons by examining past and present practices. Two problems are found in quite a few projects. One is that money was wasted even though it was scarce. A main reason is that the local natural conditions were not taken into account during design and a lot of money was spent in construction and energy wasted. Also, endless maintenance resulted from bad planning and poor workmanship. Another problem is that the totality of the plan was de-emphasised. Attention was always put on the individual building instead of on the integral environment. Most of the clients only carefully considered their own project, and carelessly regarded the entire surroundings. The designers lacked an integral concept of environment and were used to doing only single-objective projects. They ignored the fact they could also do multiobjective projects with good effects on their surroundings. We architects think about creating useful space for physical, psychological and symbolic reasons. We show this best in our work when we meet favourable conditions an understanding authority and a client who trusts us to produce designs with an integral concept of architecture and environment. I never did a project that proved satisfactory until I joined in the planning of Shenzhen University in late 1983. This school is located in the most southern part of Guangdong Province, near Hong Kong. Then I was entrusted to design the campus square and the performance and convention centre. Owing to the subtropical climate of southern China and the construction conditions of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, these projects could be completed with a little more freedom and zest than elsewhere in China. Though the construction funding level was still very low and the quality of workmanship was poor, the open spaces created on the campus are successful. Here I would like to give a brief introduction to them.