“New School Project” Proposal

Shenzhen Re-Tumu Professional Volunteer Group

 

 

Schools play a significant role in our communities. As the major place where our children receive their education, they serve as a bridge for conveying our society’s culture to successive generations—they embody the spirit of our times and embrace our hope for the future. 

 

The Wenchuan Earthquake that occurred on May 12, 2008, destroyed a massive number of schools and caused a great deal of death. This devastating disaster has resulted in an urgent need to replace a huge number of schools in a very short period of time. While the timetable for the reconstruction is hectic, it is essential that meticulous attention is given to the quality of the architectural design and construction. The Re-Tumu Group, a Shenzhen-based non-governmental volunteer group, established after the May 12 earthquake, firmly believes that the effort of rebuilding these schools should go far beyond the basic repair and replacement of hardware and should instead be carefully calibrated to achieve optimum results that will contribute to a cultural rebirth in China. With respect to the rebuilding process, not only should the stability of the new structures and excellence of the new facilities be uppermost but the collective effort should also be viewed as an opportunity to re-evaluate the role of education in our society and redefine the relationship between the spatial design of a campus, progressive educational concepts, the local natural environment, the area’s cultural tradition and its community spaces.

 

In many ways, the “New Campus Movement” that was launched in Taiwan after the earthquake of September 21, 1999, has been an inspiration for the Re-Tumu Group—the schools were rebuilt on the ruins like ‘a phoenix rising above the ashes’ and this exercise has served as an invaluable lesson for the Re-Tumu Groupabout how to proceed with the reconstruction of the schools lost in the May 12 earthquake, fueling our determination to improve the standards for school-building and enrich the campus culture in the stricken area. We believe that this reconstruction also provides an opportunity to promote high standards for rural school construction throughout China.

 

In order to seize this historical moment, the Re-Tumu Group would like to present the “New School Project” to organizations and individuals who are deeply concerned about this situation and are willing to participate in China’s post-quake, school-rebuilding effort. 

 

Objectives and Principles of the “New School Project”

 

Following the principles of the “New School Project,” the Re-Tumu Group will serve as the core group in conjunction with an advisory board comprised of school design experts (listed at the end of this article) from Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taiwan that will provide expertise and professional support to the donation-funded, school-rebuilding programs. The mission of this group is to construct a set of new schools that will implement high standards of workmanship and utilize quality materials coupled with excellent design and progressive cultural ideals for all aspects of the project.

 

The “New School Project” will uphold the following principles:

 

1.    Comprehensive planning: Achieve a full integration of the new school buildings into the surrounding environment.

2.    Public participation: Invite school members, parents and representatives of the local community to actively participate in the design process.

3.    Open campus: Enable the local community to share in the usage of the school’s facilities.

4.    Flexibility of space: Explore the possibilities of spatial flexibility for in-class learning, extra-curricular activities and future campus expansion.

5.    Safety and comfort levels: Ensure the stability of the structure and create a barrier-free environment.

6.     Environment-friendly and energy-saving strategy: Create ‘green’ campuses that encompass sustainability principles. 

7.  Cultural Inheritance: Fully respect the memory of the people, the history of each local area and create a new cultural synthesis.          

 

The Mechanism of the “New School Project” 

 

The “New School Project” will adhere to the principle of an open collaboration that joins together donors, charities and architects who support the principles of the “New School Project” in order to consolidate the collective efforts for the post-quake school design and construction. At the moment, Re-Tumu Group is working with the “Rebuilding Tomorrow Charity Fund,” a Shenzhen-based charity in order to kick off the “New School Project” with school-rebuilding projects in the quake-stricken region of the Gansu province. Based on the Tumu platform and through the assistance of its advisory board, the “New School Project” will organize various activities such as design competitions, academic forums, workshops and field trips to initiate, select and approve the architectural design for each new campus. Enterprises that are interested in donating to the project, representatives from the schools that need to be rebuilt, as well as planners and architects who would like to lend their knowledge and expertise are welcome to participate in the “New School Project” in the following ways:

 

Method I:   Join the program of the “New School Project” being co-organized by the Re-Tumu Group with the “Rebuilding Tomorrow Charity Fund” of Shenzhen. While the former will provide professional and technical support, the latter will manage the financial aspects of the project. In order to realize the ideals of the “New School Project” and fulfill the demands of its donors, the project will be conducted in a transparent manner and be open to inspection by the general public. It will also employ a professional management team to oversee the project.

 

Method II:    Complete the school-rebuilding project based on the “New School Project” principles with technical support provided by the Re-Tumu Group. The financial and management aspects of the project will be performed by organizations other than the “Rebuilding Tomorrow Charity Fund” of Shenzhen.

 

Method III:     A school-rebuilding project that follows the principles and standards set forth by the “New Campus Project” will be carried out on an independent basis. The design and final execution of the project can be submitted for review by the advisory board of the Re-Tumu Group and the approved project will be listed as part of the “New Campus Project.”

 

To ensure the smooth operation of the “New School Project,” the Re-Tumu Group will maintain a close working relationship with pertinent governmental departments, non-official volunteer groups and the mass media.

 

Framework for Implementation of the “New School Project”

 

The “New School Project” will be implemented in three stages:

 

1.   Preliminary phase: In order to kick off the “New Campus Project,” the Re-Tumu Group will work with the “Rebuilding Tomorrow Charity Fund” of Shenzhen, assisting the Shenzhen donation-funded, school-rebuilding projects in Gansu province and will be actively involved with related Shenzhen donation-funded school-rebuilding projects for other regions.

 

2.   Intermediate phase: Donors located in places outside of Shenzhen, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and other overseas areas will be invited to participate in the “New School Project.”

 

3.   Long-term view: Based on a group of successfully built cases of the “New School Project,” the Re-Tumu Group will assemble relevant case studies to illustrate the way in which it hopes to win strong support from the government. It will apply its knowledge and experience to other quake-stricken areas in an effort to expand rural school construction throughout China.

 

The reconstruction of schools in the quake-stricken areas promises to usher in a cultural rejuvenation in China. It will not only require a great deal of funding but also a clear vision, much enthusiasm, great patience as well as expertise and close teamwork among all involved parties—the goal of the Re-Tumu Group for the “New School Project” is to create a platform for donors, architects and community members to actively work together to champion a preeminent cultural project. Through a unified effort that will produce a new set of campuses combining high-quality design with progressive cultural ideals, we fervently hope to make an enduring and significant contribution to China’s rural-school construction. 

 

Appendix:  Academic Committee Members of New School Project (in the alphabetic order of surnames)

 

Taiwan

Sun-Lu Fan, Former Political Deputy Minister of Taiwan Ministry of Education

Chin-Wen Lu, Architect, Founder of Architecture-Reform Organization & Architects Cooperative in the New Campus Movement

Sheng-Fong Lin, Associate Professor, Architecture Department, Shih Chien-Praxis University; Deputy CEO of the 921 Earthquake Post-Disaster Recovery Committee

Cheng-hsiu Lin, Vice Chairman of New Taiwanese Cultural Foundation

Kwang-Tyng Wu, Chair, Department of Architecture, Tamkang University

Ying-chun Hsieh, Founder of 921 Disaster Area Housing Reconstruction Service Group

Chu-Joe Hsia, Professor, Architecture and Planning at Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University; Board Chairman, the National Taiwan University Building and Planning Research Foundation

Chao-Ching Yu, Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Chung Yuan Christian University

Hsu-Tzen Tzen, Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Architecture, Tainan National University of the Arts
 
Hong Kong

Daqing Gu, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Rocco S.K. Yim, Partner, Rocco Design Limited

Ralph Lerner, Dean, Faculty of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong

Bernard Lim Wan-fung, Professor, Department of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Weijen Wang, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong

Jinxiang Zhu, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Tao Zhu, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong
 

Shenzhen

Weimin Gong, Professor, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University

Fang He, President and Chief Landscape Architect, Shenzhen BLY Landscape Architecture Planning and Design Institute

Weiwen Huang, Planner, Division of Urban Planning and Architectural Design, Shenzhen Urban Planning Bureau

Erming Liu, Deputy Chief Planner, Architectural Design Institute of Shenzhen University

Xiaodu Liu, Partner, Urbanus Architecture & Design

Deming Mo, Chief Engineer, Shenzhen Machinery Institute Architectural Design Co, Ltd

Jianmin Meng, Chief Architect, Shenzhen General Institute of Architectural Design and Research Co, Ltd

Yan Meng, Partner, Urbanus Architecture & Design

Hua Tang, Chief Architect, Shenzhen Tang Hua Architectural Design and Consulting Co, Ltd

Wenyi Wu, Specially Invited Consulting Architect, Urbanus Architecture & Design

Jia Yu, Architect, Director of Jia Yu Studio

Qing Ye, Architect specialized in Sustainable Design, Shenzhen Building Science Research Institute

Jie Wei, Partner of Guangzhou RBS Architecture Engineer Design Associates and Chief Engineer of its Shenzhen branch

Qiwen Wang, Executive Chief Engineer, Shenzhen General Institute of Architectural Design and Research Co, Ltd

 

 

(The above proposal was first drafted in Chinese by Tao Zhu on 16 June 2008, who modified it with Weiwen Huang,  Jia Yu, Wenyi Wu, Cheng Li, Xiaoci Bai 19-20 June 2008, and translated into English with Flo Chan 28 June -22 July 2008)