Wuxi Meicun, historically known as Meili, is the birthplace of Wu culture. Nestled on the banks of Taihu Lake, this elegant Jiangnan water town is renowned as the hometown of Taibo. The city is traversed by the Bodu River, the first artificial canal in Jiangnan.
Founded in 1913, Jiangsu Meicun Senior High School is a prestigious institution with over a century of history, situated amid the picturesque Jiangnan landscape. Among its founders were Qian Mu, a master of traditional Chinese culture, and his brother Qian Zhi (father of Qian Weichang), both of whom contributed to the school’s legacy.
The new Airport Campus of Meicun Senior High School honors this rich heritage while embracing modern architectural language. It upholds the school’s enduring spirit of “sensitivity, sincerity, honesty, and virtue” through its thoughtful design.
Floating Campus
Given the limited available land, the design maximizes usable ground space by elevating campus buildings. The core campus area features an elevated first floor, including large spaces such as academic halls and lecture rooms. Buildings like the waterfront canteen and teaching blocks in green clusters retreat inward on the first floor, creating an illusion of structures floating above the ground from the second floor upwards.
This layout allows students to move freely on the first floor, facilitating quick access across the teaching areas without congestion.
The floating effect opens up the campus ground space, reducing any oppressive feeling caused by building mass. Techniques such as facade perforations, transparent grilles, and elevated corridors contribute to a layered and dynamic architectural form across the campus.
Elevating the first floor breaks the traditional closed-off campus ground space, creating an open, flowing environment where buildings seem to float lightly and harmonize with the natural and cultural surroundings. This approach not only optimizes land use but also enhances campus culture and atmosphere.
Oasis Academy
The design team aimed to create a truly garden-like oasis for the new campus. At the heart lies an “academic circle” with an 85-meter diameter, symbolizing cultural heritage and serving as a multi-level shared space that reflects the school’s openness.
The central “Plum Garden” and the ecological rooftop garden extend green spaces vertically, from ground level to the fifth facade, cultivating a serene oasis atmosphere through layered greenery.
The campus’s academic, residential, and sports facilities are arranged around this academic ring, centered on a green courtyard on the first floor. Outdoor spaces adjacent to the ring accommodate academic and exhibition activities, while the rooftop features a landscaped running track and greenery, offering space for sports and leisure.
Inside, the second-floor academic corridor connects various teaching clusters through elevated bridges. A spiral staircase enhances vertical circulation within the ring, making it a campus landmark, academic hub, and transportation center that integrates architectural function with spatial flow.
Walking through the greenery-lined circular space, students experience the tranquil garden ambiance of the “Plum Garden” and the joy of strolling through lush surroundings.
A poetic and dynamic oasis unfolds from the central “Mei Yuan,” radiating outward through the corridor bridge teaching clusters surrounding the water system, forming an “academic island” that continues the campus’s quaint and elegant atmosphere.
The design seamlessly integrates external spaces into the interiors, blurring boundaries between indoors, outdoors, and landscape. Inspired by traditional Chinese academies yet embracing modern campus spatial features, Meicun Middle School has created a unique garden campus that balances physical structures with its spiritual heritage, embodying the concept of an oasis academy.
Water Town Construction
The design team incorporated Jiangnan water town characteristics into the campus through courtyards, corridors, and water features, crafting a vibrant and poetic learning environment for teachers and students.
By reinterpreting traditional water town architectural elements, the campus evokes the rich cultural ambiance of Jiangnan literature and heritage.
The design deeply explores Wuxi’s regional traits and Meigao’s historical context, blending the elegance of Jiangnan Wu culture with the school’s century-old traditions.
Drawing from the traditional campus style, the layout employs centralized planning with integrated landscape spaces, warm tones, and diverse areas to express a modern yet Eastern aesthetic.
Following a “Chinese and New” design philosophy, the campus architecture uses minimalist, modern techniques with rhythmic facade treatments, creating a distinctive image that reflects Jiangnan’s character and Eastern humanism.
Stereoscopic Academy
The campus buildings are symmetrically arranged along a traditional academy axis, blending modern academic atmosphere with architectural spaces, corridors, and courtyards.
By lifting and overlapping flat spaces vertically, the design creates a three-dimensional campus environment. Interconnected corridors, stairs, and platforms establish a multi-level walking system across living, teaching, and public areas, enriching vertical public spaces.
Additionally, a covered, weather-protected network facilitates convenient, efficient movement throughout the campus.
The elevated first floors open up activity spaces at ground level. Corridors and courtyards provide smooth transitions between buildings, enhancing the campus’s memorable zones and creating a relaxed learning atmosphere.
Public areas are designed to meet diverse functional and psychological needs, introducing interactive spaces that extend learning beyond classrooms. The campus fosters social engagement by incorporating “sticky” social spaces and flexible areas that accommodate future functional adaptations.
The interior of the Graphic and Textual Information Center embodies the concept “There is a road in the mountains of books, and diligence is the path.” White perforated panels surround the courtyard, topped with a regular coffered ceiling, creating a serene play of light and shadow.
A continuous wooden staircase ascends through the courtyard, weaving between hanging curtains to form the symbolic “Book Mountain Path.”
Low Carbon Material Selection
Committed to creating a green, ecological, and cost-effective high school campus, the design team prioritized sustainable development, focusing heavily on facade material selection.
After thorough on-site research, they chose a modified inorganic powder composite material that is low-cost, durable, eco-friendly, and easy to install. This material effectively maintains the design’s intended appearance.
Extensive collaboration among the design team, owner, construction unit, and manufacturer led to the selection of a wood-grain imitation panel that complements the campus’s aesthetic, applied to the facades of teaching and laboratory buildings.
This eco-friendly material is made from plaster, stone powder, mineral powder, and recycled building waste. After processing and modification, it forms a breathable, moisture-resistant, fireproof, and sustainable composite.
It offers ease of construction, high performance, environmental benefits, energy savings, and affordability.
Through repeated trials to perfect the wood grain effect, the campus façade achieves a natural and refined look, reflecting both regional characteristics and low-carbon principles.
The overall campus design integrates green technologies such as elevated structures, facade openings, shading, and sponge city concepts, promoting a comfortable, energy-efficient, and sustainable learning environment.
The Meicun Middle School Airport Branch project in Wuxi represents the design team’s effort to create a three-dimensional academy campus embodying Jiangnan characteristics.
Through collaborative efforts among architects, owners, and construction teams, the project aims to deliver a modern campus architectural masterpiece that harmonizes with the Jiangnan water town context, within limited land and budget constraints.
Project Drawings
△ Model diagram
△ Model diagram
△ Model diagram
△ Model diagram
Project Information
Architect: Architectural Design and Research Institute of South China University of Technology
Project Year: 2023
Photographers: Zou Lin (Alpha Photography), Yao Li (Architectural Translator)
Lead Architects: He Jingtang, Pan Yudan
Architectural Design Team: South China University of Technology Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., including Zeng Xiance, Zheng Changbo, Guo Yishuang, Wang Renyu, Tong Jingyong, Yang Mansi, Chen Guitao, Guo Jing’er, Yang Rong, Zhong Yu, Chen Zhidong, Lu Yiwei, Liu Xindong, Lin Lin, Huang Yanfang
Structural Design Team: Guo Yuanxiang, Xu Zhennan, Lin Lianghong, Liao Shaoshan, Shen Xuelong, Xie Candong, Yue Guoming
Interior Concept Design: Pan Yudan, Zeng Xiance, Zhong Yu
Interior Design Team: Liang Jingshao, Li Jingling, Xie Qi, Ling Qiuyu, Chen Pianpian, Liu Huijuan
Water Supply and Drainage Design: Cen Hongjin, Guan Baoling, Chen Yantao, Cen Xiaoyun, Zhang Yan, Zhong Wenyong
Electrical Design: Gao Fei, Feng Wensheng, Xiang Dan
Intelligent Design: Geng Wangyang, Zeng Zhixiong, Fu Wenbin
Energy Saving Design: Hu Wenbin, Wu Chenchen
Cost Management: Zhou Huazhong, Zhao Shaohua, Liu Fuxian, Yu Hanwei, Zhou Zihan
Green Building Partner: Jiangsu Bosen Architectural Design Co., Ltd
Intelligent Systems Partner: Lanshen Yuanwang Technology Co., Ltd
Landscape Design Team: Song Weiling, Yan Zhong, Yin Shurong, Tan Yongfang, Xie Xiaowen
HVAC Design: Huang Pujie, He Yaobing, When Just, Liu Zhiming, Wu Zihao
Curtain Wall Design: Yang Jiaqing, Wang Hui, Chen Chufeng
Resident Representatives: Xie Jianquan, Pi Dongxue
Design Period: February 2021 to December 2021
Floor Area: 100,251 m²
Ground Floor Area: 86,373.19 m²
Underground Building Area: 8,966 m²
Owner: Wuxi Urban Key Construction Project Management Center
Owner Team: Huang Weixiang, Lou Kewei, Zou Haifeng, Tan Shuijun, Chen Jian, Luo Qi, Lu Ding
Construction Unit: Huaren Construction Group Co., Ltd
Location: Wuxi City
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