Neri&Hu is tasked to design the Cultural quarter of a new school providing hospitality vocational education programs on Chongming island, a suburb of Shanghai. The 19,000 square meters of programming includes amenities not only for the school, students and teachers alike, but will also serve the larger community with an art center, a black box theater, a bookstore, retail and restaurants, plus a 102-key guest faculty dormitory and hotel. Students enrolled in the program may train their skills at the hotel or F&B venues, making this multi-purpose cultural complex a true communal space for exchange and learning outside the classroom.

The project is located on the eastern tip of Chongming Island, the second largest island in China, which covers an area of 1,411 square kilometers. Owing to the continual sediment deposited by the Yangtze, the island is naturally expanding towards the east, and the site is situated on relatively new “ground.” It is a lush environment that is undergoing rapid development to transition from wild wetlands to arable farmland as well as extensive residential, commercial, and institutional functions. In this context, Shanfeng School has chosen this tranquil landscape to attract students from all over China who wish to pursue a focused technical education, an increasingly popular choice for the youth. Collaborating with one of the top hospitality schools in the world, Les Roches in Switzerland, Shanfeng aims to provide a world-class education on a campus with aspirations to be a destination in itself.

Neri&Hu’s design strategy begins by occupying the entire site in a field condition, taking over its full extent and irregular shape. Within this field, destinations are positioned on the extremities of the plot to entice users to access every part of it. The spaces in-between, or “chōra,” oftentimes seen as leftover spaces, are given as much importance as the main programs. Within the context of education, the concept of chōra is to provide space to students where they may discover the essence of who they are and what they can be. Beyond the disciplined structure of the institution itself, chōra is an undefined realm where everything is possible.

The primary challenge of the project is to bring together the complex collection of vastly different functional components, each with their own architectural intent and requirements, into a cohesive and legible whole. The hotel and dorm brings a unitized expression, while the art center is a sculptural object. The black box theater is opaque and hidden within the mass, while the bookstore should have an iconic presence along the main vehicular road. Various small shops and restaurants are distributed across the site, while a Michelin-starred feature dining venue should be a unique destination. Red concrete and brick material is used throughout but employed in different ways to suit each element. With its distinctive coloration and collective sculptural form, set against the lush greenery of Chongming, Shanfeng Les Roches school sets new educational benchmarks in China, while establishing itself as a pastoral landmark and cultural destination.