The floors were covered in dust sheets, many fixtures and fittings were still missing, and some areas were out of bounds. But the excitement was palpable as hundreds of children from Discovery College were given a special preview of the HK$290 million new eco-building they will occupy from August 20.
The 70,000 sq ft building on the Discovery Bay seafront has 49 classrooms, 16 laboratories, two multi-purpose halls, a professional-grade theatre, dance, drama and arts studios, and even a rooftop swimming pool.
Above it hangs an aerodynamic canopy shaped like a giant bird's wing that uses the same technology as the Beijing National Aquatic Centre, also known as the Water Cube, which was built for the Olympic Games. The air-filled canopy, made of soft but very tough plastic, acts like the wing of a plane, increasing the speed of the air flowing into the school's atrium - cooling and ventilating it.
This and other eco-friendly features are designed to raise the building's energy efficiency by 20 per cent and ensure a comfortable and healthy environment for study.
Peter Shaw of Coastline Villa, Discovery Bay, looked round the new building with his nine-year-old daughter Catherine, who will be studying there next term. He was pleased with what he saw.
'It's great to have all these facilities on the doorstep here in Discovery Bay,' he said. 'It is going to build itself into a community school for Discovery Bay and it means that our daughter will have an educational continuity here. She won't have to travel to secondary school on Hong Kong Island.'
Catherine is one of 450 children about to move into the building from temporary premises in Lai King, where the private school set up by the English Schools Foundation has been operating for the past year.