In recent decades, this area has been positioned as an alternative to the port of Shanghai for trade with Korea and Japan. Yet, much like many other contexts in contemporary China, Dafeng still retains a distinctly rural character: limited infrastructure serving the population and a relatively modest quality of life. Nevertheless, the city is determined to renew itself and keep pace with the country’s rapid growth. In this spirit, a new seaport was inaugurated last year, equipped with modern facilities and technologies to stimulate the sector. According to projections, the population is expected to grow by approximately 500,000 over the next five years.

For this reason, an urban development plan is currently underway, providing for the expansion of residential areas as well as the creation of services and facilities for the population. Among these is the project for a new school complex, to be built on the outskirts of Dafeng, along the banks of one of the many canals crossing the region. The initiative stems from an agreement between the local Administration and a private entrepreneur, who has committed to constructing the new school in exchange for plots of land in the city center, where he will develop residential complexes

The project

The Dafeng Technical College project marks the first initiative by Base Engineering Srl in China, following its participation in several international competitions, such as those for the Nanjing Library and the New Nanjing Museum. Our team was commissioned by a private developer to design the city’s new educational hub: a vocational institute designed to accommodate 6,000 students aged between 12 and 16, offering multiple specialization tracks, including furniture design, computer science, and electrical engineering.
The client, Jiangsu Technology Group, entrusted us with the full scope of design and execution in collaboration with a local studio. We oversaw the entire preliminary and final design phases, providing both the urban master plan and the architectural design of individual buildings across a 95,000 sqm area, with an overall investment of 135 million RMB.

The project began in the spring of 2004 with the first meetings with the implementing parties—a phase that, in China, can often be lengthy but is essential for establishing a relationship of mutual trust and respect, the foundation of any professional collaboration in the country.
In May 2005, we presented the project before the entire Municipal Administration, where it was received with genuine enthusiasm and approved in its entirety, subject only to minor adjustments related to updated urban planning regulations and slight modifications to the designated development site.

The most challenging aspect was undoubtedly reconciling the local ambitions—favoring bold architectural forms and compositional solutions rooted in cultural imaginaries quite distant from our own—with our design approach.
We prioritized a balanced relationship with the external environment, focusing on energy efficiency and the responsible use of natural resources, as well as with the internal environment, through careful selection of materials, advanced technologies, and the functional usability of spaces.

The plot is bordered on three sides by the road network, while the fourth side opens onto a canal, along which are arranged the recreational and communal facilities, as well as part of the teachers’ residences.
The masterplan is organized symmetrically around a central axis, an expansive tree-lined boulevard facing the main buildings. At its end lies the central square, conceived as a place of social interaction, together with the library.
The layout follows a clear zoning logic:
Student residences to the north,
Laboratories to the south,
Teachers’ housing to the west,
Hospitality and commercial services to the east.
This spatial distribution echoes the traditional Chinese conception of space, which, alongside the four cardinal points, recognizes a fifth reference point: the center.
Throughout the campus, green areas and waterways act as connective tissue, harmonizing the built volumes with the landscape.

The project was developed in phases, beginning with the construction of classrooms and dormitories. Subsequent phases addressed the laboratory areas and finally all the services and sports facilities.
At present, the urban planning phase has been completed, while the architectural design has been finalized only for the buildings in the first phase.
Typological solutions have been defined for the dormitories and classrooms, featuring gallery-style layouts and facade compositions that alternate large windows, shaded by wooden shutters, with opaque panels painted in vivid red. The facade finishes were guided by the color code of traditional Chinese architecture and its symbolic meanings.

During a visit in 2017, ten years after the design phase, Base’s founder, Pier Massimo Cinquetti, was able to observe the developments of a major project that hints at the future of this once-agricultural area of China.