©CAA architects
This is the planning and architectural design proposal for the Qingdao campus, commissioned by the Central Academy of Fine Arts and led by Liu Haowei’s CAA architectural firm. The campus represents a crucial strategic project for the Central Academy of Fine Arts as it launches its new century strategy and prepares for the future.
It is also a vital initiative aimed at expanding the school’s educational space and developing a campus centered on future design disciplines, featuring cutting-edge marine science and technology as a defining characteristic.
Low Bird ©CAA architects
The project is situated on the southern shore of Qingdao West Coast New Area, occupying a unique location within a natural wilderness, facing the sky and the vast blue sea.
It forms part of the West Coast Art Bay Area, alongside architectural landmarks such as the West Sea Art Museum designed by Jean Nouvel. The design draws inspiration from a “free wave,” using rhythmic lines to define the architectural form and create an organic living entity that dialogues with the art bay area and the ocean.
In this creation, artistic freedom and rationality coexist harmoniously.
Low Bird ©CAA architects
Low Bird ©CAA architects
The site’s foundation gradually slopes from the hilly terrain in the east toward the sea in the west. Remarkably, the zero elevation of the site corresponds exactly to China’s absolute elevation datum.
CAA uses this as a key design context, responding uniquely to the relationship between the site and the ocean.
The building backs onto a 6-meter-high hill, following the natural undulations of the terrain and rising continuously to a height of 33 meters. This vertical variation evolves into a large-scale curved roof garden, featuring varying spatial heights that accommodate diverse activities such as sitting, lying, walking, and running.
This design acts as a form of land art, emerging organically from the natural landscape. The entire complex appears to rise gracefully from the wilderness like a living organism growing toward the sea, resembling a frozen moment in the forward rush of ocean waves.
Low Bird ©CAA architects
Perspective View ©CAA architects
The rippling texture of water waves inspires the building’s organic ecological horizontal zoning, while the courtyard’s virtual spaces are continuously divided like cells.
Each circular functional unit is interconnected, with internal spaces and circulation areas permeating one another to form a multidimensional composite Möbius ring.
This design seamlessly integrates traditional independent units—such as classrooms, libraries, laboratories, auditoriums, and dormitories—into a free-flowing, open, and circular whole.
The multiple facets of art education interact and blend within this fluid space, expanding both inwardly and outwardly.
This proposal offers a forward-thinking exploration into the possibilities of future art education systems.
Perspective View ©CAA architects
Perspective View ©CAA architects
This distinctive complex grows organically from the land’s hills, resembling a free wave reaching out to a broader world.
It carefully balances the relationships among nature, site, ocean, architecture, education, and humanity. The architectural planning applies the free growth of art alongside humanity’s rational brilliance.
The Central Academy of Fine Arts aims to pioneer a new model for innovative education, independent research, social services, and cultural heritage.
©CAA architects
©CAA architects
©CAA architects
©CAA architects
©CAA architects
Project Drawings
△ Site Schematic Diagram
△ General Layout Plan
△ Section Diagram
△ Section Diagram
△ Concept Generation Diagram
Research on the Spatial Relationship Profile
△ Overall Spatial Form
△ Spatial System Analysis Diagram
△ Functional Analysis Diagram
△ Public Activity Space Analysis
Slow Traffic Road Analysis on the Roof
Project Information
Location: West Coast New Area, Qingdao, Shandong, China
Design Period: 2018–2019
Expected Completion: 2022
Project Type: Culture & Education
Planned Area: 22.5 hectares
Total Construction Area: 135,000 square meters
Designer (Planning, Architecture, Landscape Design): CAA Architecture Firm
Lead Architect: Liu Haowei
Design Team: Felix Amiss, Edward Ednilao, Zhao Xingyun, Zhang Pan, Ren Zhuoying, Deng Yue, Edvan Muliana
Owners: Central Academy of Fine Arts, Qingdao Sci Tech Innovation Investment Development Group Co., Ltd
Collaboration with Class A Design Institute: Beijing Urban Construction Design and Development Group Co., Ltd
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