Island City Life at East Shanghai High School

At East Shanghai High School’s Senior Division, c+d studio choreographs a campus that toggles between rigor and release. Framed by an urban green corridor and water on two sides, the project recasts school as an “Island City Life” where city-making and landscape leisure co-exist in daily routines. Visit c+d studio.

One City, One Island

Responding to the site’s linear road edge and parkland, the plan sets a compact Study City along the street and a porous Green Island across an inland river. This complementary structure preserves the public green corridor while protecting on-campus operations, and it invites time-sharing so facilities can open back to the urban community.

Longmen Study City: Density with Order

The historic Longmen Building is reinterpreted as the main teaching core, flanked by an art complex to the west and living quarters to the east. Courtyards, atria, and five bridges at varied heights stitch these pieces into a legible micro-city, encouraging efficient flows between classrooms, studios, dorms, and a sunken court that anchors the cafeteria.

Green Island: Topography for Release

Across the bridges, a softly rolling sports island gathers swimming, courts, and a standard field beneath a green roof. A connected running trail loops the topography, turning training into a landscape promenade. The low profile and open edges dissolve boundaries, giving students a pressure-release enclave without leaving campus.

Duet of Language: Grids and Curves, Earth and Metal

In the City, an orthogonal grid governs facades and plans, tempered by targeted insertions of metallic volumes at entries and passages. On the Island, flowing curves guide circulation and massing, echoing natural forms to favor choice, meander, and serendipity over bell-to-bell precision.

Material Palette: Warmth Meets Clarity

The City’s elevations use earth tones in ceramic panels and GRC with silver and bronze accents to project a classic, modern warmth. The Island reads lighter, with aluminum panels and a living green roof defining an abstracted “landform” silhouette that blends into the public parkland beyond.

In everyday practice, students move “from City to Island” and back again, performing a ritual shift between discipline and freedom. The spatial imprint of courtyards, bridges, and topographic sport becomes part of collective memory. Conceived and delivered by c+d studio, the campus embeds a civic ethos inside scholastic life while keeping the green corridor intact.

Technical Sheet