THE BENENDEN SCHOOL, GUANGZHOU CAMPUS: BUILDING STUDIES
Firm: CBT (Interiors), Martin Vinik Planning for The Arts (Theater Consultant), LWK Partners (Core + Shell)
Client: CTF Education
Location: Guangzhou, China
Project Status: In Construction
Project Phase Involvement: Concept Design, Schematic Design as Interior Design Staff
-
Campus Renderings provided by LWK Partners
The Benenden School, a UK-based boarding school famously attended by Royal Family’s Princess Anne, has been highly regarded as one of the country’s leading independent school that is currently on track to expand their global reach and open a second campus based in Guangzhou, China. Led by Hong Kong-based education consultants CTF Group, The Benenden School Guangzhou Campus focuses on providing world-class education encompassing STEAM with a local context, while opening doors to both male and female students in contrary to the all girls nature of its original campus location.
Working with LWK Partners and MVPA, CBT’s Academic team was hired to provide expert insights in forms of Conceptual Design and Schematic Design of two planned buildings as part of entire campus masterplan: C2 (Performing Arts Center), which consists of Endstage Theater, Recital Hall, Black Box Theater and Dance Studio; and C3 (Innovation Center), which is home to Robotic Lab, Innovation Classrooms, Makerspace, and flexible Exhibition Space for the future school’s 1500 students.
Inspired by the mesh between dynamic urban & nature qualities of Guangzhou and its surroundings, CBT’s design for both buildings is rooted from a timeless, function-oriented approach while remaining expressive in spatial language with bright accents of vibrant hues. While C2 draws more inspiration from the region’s coastline and mountainous pathways and translates itself to a more poetic architectural representation in its context as a Performing Arts Center, C3 presents itself as a more progressive counterpart, as shown with more tech, industrial look that supports highly flexible learning, experimenting, and collaboration across students within STEAM disciplines.
CBT & MVPA are also working together as hired experts to provide basic recommendations for specialty performing spaces, which encompasses technical coordination, detailing, and acoustical studies.
