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- Architects: Atelier TeamMinus
- Location: Aranya,Qinhuangdao, Shandong, China
- Architect In Charge: Li Zhang
- Design Team: Li Zhang, Guanglu Dou, Hao Wang, Xue Bai, Zishen Wen, Cong Li, Zihao Pan
- Interior Designers: Li Zhang, Guanglu Dou, Zishen Wen, Yingxiu Lu
- Area: 4700.0 m2
- Project Year: 2017
- Photographs: Lei Bu
- Owner: Qinhuangdao Tian-Xing-Jiu-Zhou Tourism Development, Ltd.
- Owner Representative: Yin Ma
- Operator: Idea Camp Development Centre
- Operator Representative: Wei Zhao
- Contractor: Changli County Constructions & Decorations, Ltd.
- Contractor Representative: Yuxiang Liu
- Engineering: THUADI
- Structure Engineers: Mingzhu Wang, Xiaohong He
- Electronic Engineers: Jinsong Huang, Wen Gu
- Hvac Engineers: Peng Guo, Laiquan Gao
- Landscape: BJF (Beijing) International Landscape Architecture, Ltd. / Atelier TeamMinus
- Landscape Designers: Hang Kou,Ran Tao, Guanglu Dou
- Lighting: Atelier Zhang Xin
- Lighting Designers: Xin Zhang, Xiaowei Han, Bentian Niu, Bo Tang
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Text description provided by the architects. The building is built for Qixing Education, a successful Chinese company that offers summer and winter school programs for children and the youth. Their pedagogy is to take the Chinese children, mostly products of the one-child policy, out to a temporary community of their own, and get close to nature while learning various skills in culture, craft, and socialization.
© Lei Bu
The building sits amid a strip of sand dunes, which runs along the middle of a seaside weekend housing development inside the Aranya complex. A continuous, spiral ramp that starts from one side of the sand dunes, circles around two courtyards, reaching its highest point before landing down to the ground on the other side of the dunes.
Masterplan
Of the two courtyards, the outer one is designed to be kept open and used for collective activities; the inner one is framed by the classrooms on the ground floor and the dorms on the first floor, which is used for private activities.
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Along with its entire length, the ramp helps to form a series of spaces both above and beneath it. In the lower part, the ramp forms a temporary spectators’ stand in the outer courtyard，covering an outdoor cafe area with large openings in the walls framing views to the dunes and the playgrounds.
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In the middle part, the top of the ramp provides panoramic views of the sea and the distant plains; below the ramp, there are flat spaces for children’s games. In the ending part, the ramp takes a quick descend to the playgrounds below. When there is no summer/winter school activity, the ramp is open to the local residents.
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The different heights expand and slopes of the activity spaces are to encourage the youth to move their bodies more creatively.
© Lei Bu