As part of Duke University’s 200-acre global campus in Kunshan, China, the 30-acre first phase of Duke Kunshan University Campus includes five buildings that sit atop a manmade lake and are interconnected by low bridges and seasonal plazas.
The plazas are submerged underneath the water and are only revealed and usable during periods of low rainfall, which coincides with peak student attendance. A four-acre water ecosystem is the central landscape element of the new campus and includes a stormwater management system with point-source water filtration, roof gardens, rain gardens, living water gardens, greywater capture, and aquatic habitat creation.
"The entire water filtration system serves as an ecological education lab with a flowing water garden located at the end,” said Kevin Vogel, PE, Partner and Civil Engineer with LandDesign, in a release. "The design also addresses scalable energy alternatives to correspond with the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment for carbon neutrality.”
Primary gathering spaces feature movable benches, planters, and sculptures in order to accommodate large events, art installations, and social/learning space. Gensler is the project’s architect while LandDesign is handling landscape architecture and civil engineering duties.
Related Stories
| Oct 30, 2012
Lord, Aeck & Sargent announces four student life facility wins
Projects recognize the architecture firm’s expertise on a nationwide basis.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Gold Winner: Wake Forest Biotech Place, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Reconstruction centered on Building 91.1, a historic (1937) five-story former machine shop, with its distinctive façade of glass blocks, many of which were damaged. The Building Team repointed, relocated, or replaced 65,869 glass blocks.
| Sep 19, 2012
Modular, LEED-Gold Certified Dormitory Accommodates Appalachian State University Growth
By using modular construction, the university was able to open a dorm a full year earlier than a similar dorm built at the same time with traditional construction.
| Sep 6, 2012
CPPI awarded $30.3 million contract for University of Florida’s Harrell Medical Education Building
The specialized interdisciplinary learning environment will serve as a focal point for integration and program development for all primary care educational activities in the College of Medicine.
| Sep 5, 2012
Skanska tops out residence hall complex at the University of Delaware
Construction firm achieves structural milestone for $71 million student housing expansion project.
| Aug 30, 2012
John S Clark Co. completes teaching lab at UNC Wilmington
Three-story building provides offices, classrooms, and labs.
| Aug 7, 2012
Pioneering revival
Financial setbacks didn’t stop this Building Team from transforming the country’s first women’s medical school into a new home for college students.
| Aug 7, 2012
Shedding light on the arts
Renovating Pietro Belluschi’s Juilliard School opens the once-cloistered institution to its Upper West Side community.
| Aug 7, 2012
McCarthy tops out LEED Platinum-designed UCSD Health Sciences Biomedical Research Facility
New laboratory will enable UCSD to recruit and accommodate preeminent faculty.
| Jul 25, 2012
KBE Building renovates UConn dining hall
Construction for McMahon Dining Hall will be completed in September 2012.