YUHU SCHOOL & COMMUNITY CENTRE, LIJIANG, CHINA

ARCHITECT LI, Xiaodong (Tsinghua University)
Yuhu is a Naxi minority village in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Lijiang, ten hours’ bus journey North-west of Kunming. On the foothills of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, it is 2,760 metres above sea level and so enjoys a cool-dry climate with cool summer and mild winters. Behind it rise the white peaks of the mountains, dramatically defining the horizon.
Yuhu primary school, which located in the northwest of Yunnan China, was built in 2001. However, its building was already hard to meet the educational requirements nowadays and urgently need to build an extension. The foundation of this project came from donors of Singapore, China and local government’s grant. Moreover, the extension field was also donated by the local people ,which is located in the north of old Yuhu primary school and nearby the former residence of Joseph?Charles?Locke’s, an Austrian-born American botanist and a journalist of American National Geographic.
The architect Li Xiaodong’s design idea was based on his research of the local tradition, construction materials, techniques and resources. Therefore, this project combined research and design together, and try to make a new annotation of Lijiang’s traditional building through the understanding of the environment, society and protection of buildings.

Awards:
2005-2006 Architectural prize of Asian Architects Association ——Asian architectural golden prize.
Innovation prize by the Cultural Heritage Syndicate , UNESCO in Asian and Pacific regions.
Protection prize of cultural heritage by UNESCO in Asian and Pacific regions.
Second prize of Ar+daward ,UK
Best Design Award, EDRA (Environment Design and Research Association) Places annual awards, USA

Design:
The project caters for some 160 students and a cultural activity space for some 1,300 villagers with no less than eight rooms and an exhibition space. The design took on the sustainable basic principle of reinventing vernacular architecture. The project is planned with three small buildings in a “Z” shaped pivoted around an old maple tree. This allowed two open spaces (courtyards) to be created, defined by the blocks: a school courtyard defined by two classroom blocks and agriculture fields; and a more intimate community courtyard defined by a classroom block, a community block and Rock’s residence boundary wall with water features.
The architects designed the staircase as a focal point for the community courtyard. It is regarded as a total modern architectural insertion and is designed as a sculptural expression. Its core is to be cast in reinforced concrete, clad in limestone, with steel cantilevered fins to hold timber treads and risers. Compared to the traditional Naxi house, the staircases are usually small and located in a corner of the house. By taking the staircase out of the building, more classroom space was also created.
Traditional construction materials and techniques have been carefully married to modern ones. Timber was brought, cut and planed on site to make the structural frame and fenestrations. A structure design challenge was how to allow the buildings to withstand lateral loading in this earthquake zone. The timber frame system harnesses the flexibility allowed by mortise and tenon joints to resist tensional forces during an earthquake. The timber frame structure also meant that the stonewalls are non-loadbearing and are independent of the timber structure. The timber lattice frames at the gable end are also designed to prevent massive collapse of stone gable walls during an earthquake.
With the Naxi tenet of the mountains as the backbone and water as the soul of their culture, the design incorporated local stones and water. The most plentiful material in the area is white-coloured sedimentary limestone as well as cobblestones. In consideration of material sustainability, the architects decided to use it as much as possible, cobblestones for water features and limestone for the rest. Big sliding and casement fenestrations open in clement weather to allow as much light to penetrate as possible. All traditional aesthetic treatments or ornamentations were reduced to their basics: curved roof ridges were straightened, gable end ornamentations simplified into a timber lattice frame inspired by traditional grains racks.
“He tried to create a combination to carry on and improve Lijiang——a historical and cultural town from both architectural form and structure” said architect Zhang Yonghe.

Dr Li Xiaodong
Architect, Chair Professor
School of Architecture
Tsinghua University
Mr Yeo Kang Shua
Project Manager
Department of Architecture,
School of Design & Environment
National University of Singapore
Tel: 874 4471 or email: g0202443@nus.edu.sg