Nanyang Girls’ High School by Park + Associates: 2017 Best of Year Winner for Large Primary/Secondary Education
Old and new, indoors and out. All mesh with an expansion for a prestigious public school founded in 1917. It had seen several locations until claiming this 9-acre property in 1999.
The site conditions encountered by principal architect Lim Koon Park entailed a traditional clock tower flanked by two colonial-influenced wings that faced an expansive lawn with a running track. To accommodate the growing student body, Park proposed a three-story U shape, 66,000 square feet. Both legs of the U would house classrooms and other academic spaces. There would also be extracurricular facilities including a double-height theater with 300 seats and a triple-height gymnasium with maple flooring.
Neither emulating nor overwhelming the existing buildings, the new one is constructed from steel-framed slabs of reinforced concrete, glass, and aluminum louvers angled to control the tropical sun. In further deference to the surrounding campus, his addition is partially below-grade. “Even though there are learning spaces in the basement, they feel more like a sunken ground level, because the courtyard brings in plenty of natural light, views, and ventilation,” he says. Better yet, the slope of the roof, covered with artificial turf, provides a perch for spectators at track meets on the sports field beyond.
Project Team: Christina Thean; Yin Wing Yong; Nuntawat Tasanasangsoon; Adrian A. Gesmundo; Fiona Chua Shi Yi; Ashawin Laohavichairat.
> See more from the December 2017 issue of Interior Design
> See all 2017 Best of Year winners and honorees
