UK ACADEMY – GIA LAI PROVINCE

Architects: Vschool

Area: 30.000 m2

Year: 2018

Photographs: Ha Guong

Structural Engineer: Nguyen Vu La

Interior designer: Phan Hoang Anh

Text description provided by the architects. UK Academy – UKA is an inter-school system that combines 5-year primary and secondary schools with kindergarten, located in the UKA community in the southwest of Pleiku City. The school here is a good place where one can overlook the green neighborhoods and parks of the city. Although the school’s lot is large, the lot ratio is close to 1.5, which makes it a high-density campus. So, the design of the UKA intercollegiate school needs to respond to the urban public environment at the macro scale, while at the micro scale, it needs to form a campus environment with spatial organization efficient and convenient communication based on the need to combine horizontal and vertical space. The effective and enjoyable public communication space, which is exploited in the functional complex, is also the most important point in the UKA spatial experience.

According to the surrounding urban spatial relationships and sun control conditions, the playground designed to located on the southwest side of the campus. The entire UKA campus is divided into 5 clear functional areas from south to north, which are preschool room, primary department, general teaching loop, middle school room and sports & recreation room. For the kindergarten department, an independent entrance located on the south side, while the main entrance to the elementary and middle school faculty located on the east street. The challenges lie in how to create an integrated and shared use of the different functional areas on the basis of the functional response of the different parts and the most streamlined.

A series of U-shaped corridors facing the playground and located on the floors, connect the elementary, middle and high school departments and the function and entertainment rooms in the most streamlined way. With this design, the architect of Vschool has created an aerial stand around the playground, where people can take part in sports activities, helping the scenery inside and outside the building interact together.