In the Lin-gang Special Area of Shanghai, c+d studio has completed Island City Life, a new campus for the Shanghai High School Senior Division that redefines the relationship between education, landscape, and urban life. Surrounded on three sides by greenery and water, the 48-class residential high school responds to the challenge of density, integration, and well-being with an architectural language that balances rigor and release.
EDUCATIONAL
The project establishes a dual narrative, the City and the Island. Along the main road, the “Study City” concentrates classrooms, dormitories, and cultural spaces into a dense academic hub. Across an inland river, the “Green Island” opens as a landscaped sports complex, offering space for movement and relaxation. Together, they form a dialogue between urban intensity and natural calm, structure and freedom.
Within the Study City, three key areas define the spatial hierarchy: the main teaching zone, the arts complex, and the residential section. Organized around courtyards, bridges, and atria, these zones embody order and rhythm. Five bridges link the buildings at varying heights, reinforcing the sense of a self-contained micro-city. The use of warm earth tones and geometric grids gives the area a grounded, modern identity.
By contrast, the Green Island adopts flowing topography and soft curves, its silver-white aluminum façades and vegetated roofs evoking natural continuity. The island accommodates basketball courts, swimming facilities, and a sports trail integrated into the landscape, promoting wellbeing through movement and open space.
Color and material further express the contrast: earth and warmth define the City, while metallic lightness defines the Island. Together, they compose an architectural duet of precision and fluidity.
For c+d studio, Island City Life is more than a school, it’s an experiment in educational architecture where design becomes part of learning. Moving between the City and the Island, students experience discipline and release, structure and play, forming memories shaped by the space itself.
