After undergoing extensive urbanization in the past 30 years or so in China, the availability of land for new developments has progressively diminished, prompting a shift in urban development focus from urban expansion to adaptive urban rejuvenation. Situated in Guangdong Jiangmen's largest Industrial Park, Heshan Vocational College, formerly a furniture manufacturing plant, underwent a transformation project encompassing nearly 100,000 square meters of existing industrial structures into a forward-looking vocational and technical institution. Emphasizing open, artful spaces and humanistic considerations, the revitalization project aimed to creatively overcome constraints and enhance function, structure, ventilation, lighting, and public space quality.
The overall campus design advocates a themes of "universal linkage" and "futuristic flexibility", with the creation of a newly constructed elevated sky pedestrian system to efficiently inter-weave the old and new buildings, thereby liberating more usable area, bringing more multi-functional space, and generating three dimensional circulation system that could connects almost every corner of the campus. With a focus on maximizing ecological, communicative, and learning spaces within confined quarters, the design strategy aimed to foster a human-centric campus encouraging imaginative activities and dynamic explorations. Architectural and landscape designs promote interdisciplinary interactions, faculty-student integration, and ecological sustainability.
The completion of this college project has gained broad recognition and acclaims from students, parents, faculty and community; identically serving as a successful model on large-scale industrial structures transformation into modern educational facilities.