bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Adrian Wan

A modest school project designed by a team at the Chinese University of Hong Kong  is one of the 15 winners of a prestigious international architecture award.
Among the other winners of this year's RIBA International Award  are the 'Bird's Nest'  National Stadium and the 'Water Cube'  National Aquatics Centre in Beijing.  
The Maosi Ecological Demonstration Primary School has also been adopted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development  to serve as a design reference for  more than 200,000 schools in Gansu province . 
The school, designed by a team led by Edward Ng Yan-yung  from the Department of Architecture  at Chinese University, is in Maosi village in the Loess Plateau  region, a six-hour drive from Xian .  
Some 200 students, who once struggled in extreme climate conditions, now enjoy studying  in a comfortable school where temperatures are kept more constant than before.
The 10-classroom school cost about 450,000 yuan (HK$511,000) to build, according to Professor Ng. The school is designed to maximise daylight and natural ventilation and was made of materials like mud bricks, rubble, straw and reed, which were sourced locally, thus saving on transport expenses.
Instead of buying and using cheaper factory-made red tiles, Professor Ng told the village head to ask villagers for un-used roof tiles.
Construction was carried out by villagers under the supervision of Professor Ng's team. They used no sophisticated tools, so manpower and equipment costs were much lower than for other buildings built using conventional methods.
The school, though cheap, performs better in terms of thermal comfort, energy consumption and environmental impact.
The school's headmaster is pleased with the project because temperatures inside the school building stand at five degrees Celsius in winter while temperatures drop to minus 10 degrees  outside.
Professor Ng, who won the same award in 2006 for a bridge in Maosi, said he was  delighted that he could help the needy with his practical and ecologically sound designs.




Chinese University's design for school wins global award