IMMERSION SCHOOL’S
NEW CAMPUS WEBINAR WITH VIRTUARCH
The Nanshan Chinese International College (NCIC) Immersion School is about to move to a new state-of-the-art campus in the vibrant city development area of Shekou Port. With VIRTUARCH, who were put in charge for the Interior Design of this new school campus, the school scheduled a real townhall meeting to present this project to teachers and parents. Due to the corona situation Lila Leung, Superintendent and General Manager at Immersion school, organized a webinar on May 21, with experts from VIRTUARCH. Daniel Heusser, president of the Swiss architecture company VIRTUARCH and his colleague Helen Jiang, Interior Design Manager took their time to explain the idea behind the concept and the interior design in detail.
A School for the Students
Lila Leung, SuperIntendent and General Manager at Immersion school
Lila Leung started the webinar by introducing the location of the new campus, emphasizing the importance of the Bay Area in the city’s future development plan. Lila told the parents that it is vital to reveal the teaching philosophy through a good interior design, and that’s why the school selected VIRTUARCH. “Daniel and I have known each other for more than ten years, and we share the same design concepts. We selected VIRTUARCH for many of our schools’ design projects, including Shekou International School, Nanshan College Preparatory Academy and many others.” Lila pointed out.
Daniel Heusser then started his speech with a clear statement, addressing both staff and parents: “We do not design for us. We design for the students. Therefore, it is necessary for us to understand what the students need, what kind of teaching and learning environment we should provide. And of course, we need to know what values and what culture the school will reflect.” In his opening remarks, Daniel Heusser also expressed his gratitude for having the opportunity to roll out such a high-level school project looking forward to seeing the students feeling comfortable with the campus and appreciating the value of the newly designed educational site. “Schools are about the future. Schools define how our society will develop. And we are happy to make a humble contribution here”, said Daniel Heusser at the end of his introduction before handing over to Helen Jiang who explained the details of the design and the underlying principles and ideas of VIRTUARCH.
High-standard Design
Helen Jiang put an emphasis on how VIRTUARCH came up with the design concept for the interior design for the school. As the project is located in Shenzhen, a fast-growing city in China, the design team developed the concept of a “chip”. “The computer chip stands for the development of high technology, and it also refers to the neurons in the brain. Therefore, we decided to use the chip as the most important design element for the school, meaning their education aims to cultivate passionate talents who make rapid progress”, Helen Jiang explained.
The school is located in Shenzhen, a fast-growing city in China
The overall color system is inspired by the Earth layers, changing from warm to cold colors, from bottom floor to upper floor. Helen Jiang explained how this design takes into account students’ psychological changes when growing up. “There are students from grade 1 to grade 12, meaning the age span is so large that the psychological age also differs a lot. We try to use different colors for different grades to distinguish the floors.”
Color system inspiring from the Earth layers
At the end, Helen explained the functional settings of each floor plan to the parents in detail. She also introduced specific design ideas and considerations of the design team to show the high-standard and high-quality work of VIRTUARCH.
Lobby
Library
Cooking classroom
Music classroom
Theatre
Gymnasium
Reading area
Positive Feedback
At the end of the online presentation, the participants had the opportunity to ask their questions. All in all, the event had been a great opportunity for teachers and parents to get insights directly from the design professionals from VIRTUARCH, while for the designers, it was a great opportunity to collect the reactions of the school community on the design. The feedback received was highly positive and everyone involved in this project is looking forward to the official opening of the Immersion school’s new campus on September 1st, 2020.
