Zhejiang Conservatory of Music (Photo/Shanghai Daily)
Universities are getting a makeover, as landscaping design take a more prominent role — often turning to traditional Chinese gardens for inspiration.
As enrolments increase, universities are also moving out of city centers to the suburbs, providing the opportunity to create new campus environments.
One example is the impressive Xiangshan campus of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Wang Shu.
The campus draws on traditional Chinese gardening, which stresses a more harmonious relationship between architecture and the landscape.
More than 700 pieces of bricks, tiles and stones collected from demolished traditional houses have been used in campus buildings.
University campuses in China are no longer just a place for students. They have become places for architects and local governments to shine.
Shanghai Daily checks out three new campuses that have the potential to become cultural landmarks.
Cangqian campus of Hangzhou Normal University
Hangzhou Normal University is one of the earliest colleges for teachers — Zhejiang Dual-level Teachers' College was established in 1908. It was a hotbed of the May Fourth Movement in Zhejiang. The movement was an anti-imperialist student uprising in 1919, but more broadly referred to the New Culture Movement (1915-1921).
Many pioneering figures of that time taught at the college, including writer Lu Xu and educator Xia Mianzun.
The university has four campuses, with one by the Qiantang River and one at the foot of Yuhuang Hill in the West Lake scenic area.
The newest Cangqian campus is in a booming area of Internet companies and start-ups. Some believe it will be the center of Hangzhou's Silicon Valley.
Cangqian is a historic watertown in Yuhang District noted for its Lamb Festival every November. Liangzhu, the place where the Neolithic jade culture is discovered, is in its north while the Xixi National Wetland Park to the east.
The bird's-eye view of the main entrance therefore looks like the facade of a jade cong, a vessel typical of Liangzhu culture. A waterway cuts through the campus dividing building clusters in the east and west.
The central cluster is a circular complex consisting of a library, the administration building, a research center, an activity center, a conference center and a reception center, each joining a central atrium. The complex has already been shortlisted in this year's World Architecture Festival award.
Address: 2318 Yuhangtang Rd
