[4] As a team, both Dong Mei and Liu Xiaochuan have gained recognition through the Royal Academy Dorfman Award, which they received in 2020.
In the past, the building and construction sector in China prioritized economy and efficiency, often using industrialized products for rapid urbanization and did not consider the local vernacular.
[4] Despite that, Dong Mei worked with energy conservation and environmental protection as the core focus of the design approaches, with much of the research going into “simplifying building volumes [and] improving natural ventilation,”[6] – concepts drawn from passive housing principles.
The project considers factors of lightweight and recyclable materials, space for habitat growth and preservation, and green building principles such as sufficient thermal insulation and solar energy.
[9] As reconstruction project following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the design uses local materials and traditional building methods to provide a place for learning.