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Colleen Lee

Architecture is not all about fancy and glamorous design. To architect Edward Ng Yan-yung, simplicity is the key to his  work.
His recent project,  a simple but extraordinary village school in Gansu province,  was commended at the first World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, Spain, last month.
'In Maosi village, pupils used to study in yaodongs [dugouts carved into  the side of a  hill]. They are unsuitable for students as it is  very cold in winter and very hot in summer in those caves,' said Professor Ng, 47, of Chinese University's department of architecture.
In an attempt to help schoolchildren in the mainland's Loess Plateau region enjoy a better learning environment, professor Ng and his doctoral student Mu Jun  decided in 2002 to design a type of school fit for the Loess area in the northwest of China, creating  a model for other village schools.
They visited the deprived, tranquil and remote village of Maosi about six hours' drive from Xian,  to search for the best construction site.
Maosi has about  2,500 villagers. About 200 schoolchildren study at the Maosi Ecological Demonstration Primary School which used to be known as the Maosi Primary School.
The old school comprised four yaodongs while the new one, the construction of which was completed in summer last year, has five one-storey premises, each with two classrooms, a renovated village house which serves as an office for the teaching staff and a toilet.
The one hectare-school site also has two large playgrounds and greenery.
'The yaodongs they used as classrooms are very small. Each can only accommodate more than a dozen students at one time.  The caves also have poor ventilation and don't get much light,' Professor Ng said.
Making good use of earth and natural building materials, the new classrooms are mainly made of mud, covered with inclined roofs and fitted with double-glazed windows.
'Mud can serve as thermal mass ... [In Maosi village,] it is negative 10 to 20 degrees Celsius in winter and around 30 degrees in summer.
'But the temperature inside the new classrooms is about 10 degrees in winter and around 20 degrees in summer,' he said. The double-glazed windows  also helped keep the rooms warm.
'The school's headmaster [surnamed Mao] told us: 'Last winter was one of the worst. But in this new school, not one piece of coal needs to be burnt to keep warm. All our money can be spent on books',' he said.
'The classrooms also have good ventilation as there are windows on both sides,' he added. 'It is unnecessary to switch the lights on until night-time. The big windows make the rooms feel wonderfully light and airy during the daytime.'
The rooms are also spacious, measuring  six metres by  nine metres.
Instead of buying new red tiles from factories for the roofs, Professor Ng and Mr Mu asked the village head to collect or buy unused  tiles from villagers.
The whole construction was carried out by villagers themselves. Most building materials, such as mud bricks, rubble, straw and reed, were sourced around the site.
'Little waste was generated during the construction. Off-cuts were recycled back into the work. For example, off-cut rafters were used for children's facilities,' Professor Ng said. No concrete was used as it was expensive and not eco-friendly.
Toilets in remote areas  on the mainland  are generally not equipped with flushing facilities, but the school's bathroom  is odour-free thanks to an energy-saving design.
'Many toilets in rural areas are smelly,'  Professor Ng said. 'But one of the exterior walls of this school toilet is fitted with a solar panel. It can absorb sunlight to provide heat for drying excrement quicker. It won't stink even without bathroom fans.'
But the project did not always go smoothly. 'The villagers' craftsmanship was bad so some work had to be done again,' he said, adding that the workers also asked for a pay rise during the construction.
Professor Ng, along with a team of architects and structural engineers, also helped design a new low-budget  bridge to help students cross the river which bisects the village. The old bridge was often washed away by floods in the rainy season, leaving students unable to get to school.
Professor Ng, who has a doctorate from Cambridge University's department of architecture, is now chairman of the Wu Zhi Qiao (Bridge to China) Charitable Foundation, which tries to improve the livelihood of the underprivileged in mainland rural areas by  building bridges.
The  school project cost about 400,000 yuan,  300,000 yuan of which came from the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden while the rest came from an anonymous donor.
Most of the donation was shared with about 40 villagers who were hired to help build the school.
'It is fulfilling to see pupils' happy faces in their new classrooms,' he said. 'Many said the new campus was beautiful.'
His efforts also won international recognition, with  the village school receiving a commendation in the learning category of the World Architecture Festival.
But he said he was still unsatisfied with the current design. 'I want to make it simpler, so it can be easily built by unskilled workers,' he said.
The festival, held from  October 22 to 24, was one of the largest architectural award events in the world, with a panel of world-renowned judges chaired by Norman Foster, whose company designed the Hong Kong International Airport.
Professor Ng's road to success was paved with his profound interest in architecture since childhood and years of hard work.
'I had wanted to become an architect ever since I was in primary school,' he said. 'I didn't like studying or reading.  My mother asked an uncle of mine, who was a teacher, what I could do when I grew up. He said I could either become a comic book artist or an architect, so I started to take note of the design of different buildings and liked hanging around in the street.'
Of the dozens of architecture projects  he has been  involved in,   he is most proud of the Wu Zhi Qiao project in Maosi village.



Building blocks