The current upgrade of the service and education industries has led many cities and schools to face not new campuses but old building renovations. The old renovation will become a very important type of education building. The Wenzhou NO.1 Private Experimental School is a typical challenge in this architectural design category: converting a cigarette box packaging manufacturing factory with an area of nearly 26,000 square meters into an elementary school with a capacity of 48 classes. The original site was extremely dense, the building structure was highly functional, the façade was regular, and there was a lack of interaction between the building blocks. Therefore, how to create a dynamic, interesting and centripetal campus based on the preservation of the original building became the biggest problem of our design renovation, in view of the different nature of the office and factory buildings in different generations.
First, we rezoned the building. We made a new functional zoning of the plant and placed a maximum 150m circular track based on the site conditions, allowing the sports area to double as a square space in a traditional school building. The second step was to make connections. Following the semicircular flow of the playground, an elevated storm corridor was created to link the various functional areas, serving as a transportation function while doubling as a sports field grandstand. The third step is to make a unified design transformation of the façade. The sunshade louvers are used as the main façade language, from which the original building façade is vaguely penetrated. The elevation and height difference design makes the façade naturally meander and undulate with a sense of motion. This strategy not only provides a sense of semi-enclosed space for the public space but also effectively creates unity between the originally different generations of buildings.
