01 Project Site Selection
When expanding an existing, well-established campus, the placement of new buildings is crucial. After thoroughly understanding the needs of the teachers and students for the new library, we began by carefully selecting the site. The location needed to satisfy functional requirements while preserving the existing campus layout.
Nanya Middle School features a garden-style campus with a beautiful environment. Three potential sites were considered:
- Site One: Located south of the main entrance, serving as the campus gateway. It is surrounded by public green spaces and entrance plazas, but the site has significant elevation differences.
- Site Two: Adjacent to the core teaching area, offering convenience but requiring demolition of shared classrooms within the current land use.
- Site Three: Near Weiming Lake with scenic views but far from the teaching area and close to the student sports field, resulting in considerable noise disturbance.
Ultimately, Site One was selected due to its economic feasibility, convenience, and timely accessibility. The challenge then was to address the site’s height differences and minimize the project’s impact on the existing environment.
△ Library Site Selection © Luojin Studio
A library that seems open yet is nestled within the original slope © Summer Solstice
View of the building from the top of the slope road © Summer Solstice
02 Born with the Trend, Shushan Elegant Charm
The site lies at the forefront of the campus’s core landscape, creating a visual dialogue with Weiming Lake located in the southwest corner. Positioned north and south of the teaching zone, the campus cleverly integrates elements of mountain and water.
The new library not only extends the teaching area but also plays a vital role in the campus’s central landscape. To maximize the sloped terrain and site environment while emphasizing the building’s cultural significance, the design features a three-level terrace. Simple block stacking and stepped setbacks conform to the slope, forming a “book mountain” that flows naturally with the land.
A curved outer corridor seamlessly links to the surrounding mountains and steps. This elegant spatial design revives the slope’s original character at the campus entrance, creating a library that appears open yet remains discreetly embedded in the hillside. Teachers and students passing by experience a familiar yet refreshing and contemplative atmosphere.
△ Building Form Evolution © Luojin Studio
The serene library at dusk © Summer Solstice
03 Functional Composite of Flowing Space
Unlike a university library or a public welfare library, the middle school library serves a distinct role. Our design aims to create a versatile space offering a broad variety of activity areas that foster diverse interactions and exchanges.
Perched on the hillside, the library enhances accessibility for teachers and students via natural connections from multiple levels and paths leading to different floors. Each outdoor terrace includes a prominent platform that extends outward, creating engaging eave spaces that encourage communication, learning, and chance encounters. This approach softens the traditionally serious and formal atmosphere of campus libraries.
Besides standard reading and study rooms, the library features many open, flexible spaces without fixed functions—such as small tree houses, large steps, reading pavilions, and coffee bars—imbuing the environment with a romantic and inviting character.
△ Expansive outdoor platforms © Luojin Studio
△ Emphasizing strong connections between large platforms and stairs © Luojin Studio
Open spaces with flexible uses © Summer Solstice
Open, flexible spaces © Luojin Studio
△ Reading Room © Luojin Studio
△ Coffee Bar © Luojin Studio
04 Naturally Hidden in the Forest, Blending with Boundaries
The design minimizes the building’s visual impact by using block stacking, shifting, and twisting. This approach embeds the structure into the hillside in stepped layers, allowing it to blend organically with the environment and follow the site’s terrain.
The library’s roof naturally connects with the original campus road atop the slope through subtle landscape contouring. This blurs the boundary between building and site, enhancing the spatial experience and inviting exploration. The flowing architecture and landscape soften the rigidity of straight lines, evoking a sense of time passing.
Through varied landscape elements—internal courtyards, elevated green spaces, staggered openings on outdoor platforms, and micro-topography on the roof—the building forms an integrated, practical space spanning both vertically and horizontally. Existing trees and landscape textures are preserved on the lower level, where indoor and outdoor spaces complement each other, creating an experience akin to strolling through a sea of flowers and standing amidst a forest.
△ Library roof, flowing architecture and landscaping © Summer Solstice
△ Flowing architecture and landscape © Luojin Studio
Misaligned openings on outdoor platforms © Summer Solstice
The southeast courtyard of the reading room © Summer Solstice
05 Green and Low-Carbon: Prioritizing Passive Design
Buildings on slopes often face challenges such as retaining walls and poor lighting and ventilation. These issues were addressed from the earliest stages of design.
The southeast side slopes gently below the roof, hindering natural ventilation during summer when southeast winds prevail. Inspired by traditional architecture’s narrow alleys, a full-length ventilation duct was introduced between the building and the slope, connecting to the central courtyard. These ducts act as vertical “wind tunnels,” capturing breezes from all directions and promoting wind-driven ventilation.
Two vertical openings on the roof function as chimneys, aiding thermal ventilation. Together, the horizontal ducts and vertical openings allow the building to self-regulate natural airflow, significantly improving ventilation conditions.
Eaves placed along the setback edges provide horizontal shading and create linear air pockets that encourage pressure differences on exterior walls, further enhancing wind-driven ventilation.
△ Ventilation ducts between building and slope © Luojin Studio
△ Vertical openings placed according to wind simulation © Luojin Studio
△ Overhanging eaves at the platform edge © Summer Solstice
The large outdoor platform formed by the terrace setback © Summer Solstice
The southeast courtyard adjoining the reading room is appropriately scaled. Light tubes installed on the outdoor platform and roof efficiently channel natural light indoors, ensuring even and comfortable illumination throughout the reading spaces.
The building’s supports are detached from the outer wall facing the mountain, and the lower level is partially elevated. This design prevents direct contact with soil, promoting drainage and preventing moisture damage or seepage.
△ Architectural Section © Luojin Studio
Though modest in size, this hillside library has hosted academic salons, art exhibitions, and concerts within a year, carrying the unique joy of children. When those children leave and one day reflect on this place, it may become one of the warmest memories for teachers and students alike.
Children’s Memories in Architecture © Changsha Nanya Middle School
Project Information
Project Name: Changsha Nanya Middle School Library
Location: Changsha City, Hunan Province
Owner: Nanya Middle School, Changsha City
Design Team: Luo Jin Studio
Design Unit: China Machinery International Engineering Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd
Construction Unit: Hunan Shuntian Construction Group Co., Ltd
Building Area: 4,767.92 square meters
Chief Designer: Luo Jin
Project Leader: Li Ke
Architectural Design: Luo Jin, Zhang Cheng, Chen Xiaoming, Deng Li, Yi Ting, Peng Han
Structural Design: Jiang Hao, Song Yixiong
Electrical Design: Chen Zhanxiang, Zhao Jinjin
Water Supply and Drainage Design: Zhuo Yunhong, Yang Siqin
HVAC Design: Xiang Hong, Liao Xiaoqin
Landscape Design: Cheng Qi
Interior Design: Shen Qingjun, Zhou Bobei, Yang Huantao
Design Period: May 2019 – June 2020
Completion Date: April 2023
Photography: Summer Solstice, Luo Jin Studio, Nanya Middle School, Changsha City
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