WORKac’s design for the new Shenzhen Institute of Design and Innovation (SIDI) reimagines design education for the 21st century. Located on the slope of a mountain in Shenzhen’s Baoan District, the new campus abuts a rare pocket of green nature surrounded by urban infrastructure.

We have imagined a school in complete harmony with nature. An overall strategy of alternating bands of lush, planted and tree-lined walks, combined with intense bands of academic, residential and leisure buildings ensures that each square meter of building is complemented by a square meter of open green space. This is further enhanced by the integration of plazas, courtyards, green roofs and planted gardens interspersed throughout the campus.

By harnessing solar power; smart water storage, reuse and reclamation; low carbon building materials; and passive heating and cooling as well as waste reduction processes, the campus will also provide a model of how integrated and thoughtful green urban design across scales reinforces the concept that design can be used to provide a more creative and sustainable future for the earth and its inhabitants.