by  Annette Chu, Charis Mok,  Wendy Hui, Joanna Leung, Kan Tong, Sylvia Yeung

The initial thought underlying the nursery design is to create a multifaceted arena for the little ones where interesting stories could happen amidst exciting backgrounds. Given a 18m by 30m footprint sitting in a rarely isolated and unique urban lot with 4 candlenut trees, a 7-storey stacking of many otherly worlds slowly emerges. Children shall walk through a vast vertical landscape with small huts where they shall find each hut is a little different from each other.

The building cores and service areas are situated with an intention to naturally divide the floor plate to 3 big rooms while eliminating the use of doors, encouraging children to run freely and interact. Each room faces a different facade, giving children a sense of orientation and etching memories of places as they grow up. Activity rooms such as library, art room, music room are planned to mingle with classrooms such that children can discover their interest at close proximity as they promote up the classes.

At the ′fields′ where most of the activity rooms are located, large window walls are generously proportioned, opening up the space to become an infinite scene flooded in natural light. Open-plan furniture arrangements set out the stages for children to explore and nurture their curiosity. Inside the ′huts′ are the more refined and calm classroom spaces, where solid walls finished with ceramic tiles characterise the exterior enclosing the room, small windows are punctured to frame views of the immediate context. The interplay of ′huts′ and ′field′ defines one another and varies throughout the seven storeys.

Concrete column and beam structures supports the scattered ′huts′ at different levels with the incorporation of ribbed slabs holding up large span of ′fields′ in between. The material palette incorporates slight transitions across floors, spilling in diverse colour of nature and seasons as children wander. The use of fair-faced concrete with occasional textured relief at large wall surfaces and cores brings in subtle grey hues and depth to the backdrop. Inspired by the children′s drawings displayed in the existing nursery, distinctive ′happy objects!′ that are a little awkward, out-of-proportion are thrown at various chosen corners, serving the room functions and stamping landmarks for the little ones.

In search of the right scale for small people, we hope to design from the eyes and minds of children, setting out stages of dreams against a merry garden, foliage of autumn leaves, a sky high-up, a rainy mist...

by Annette Chu, Tommy Yeung, Sam Chan, Charis Mok and Clarence Ku

Children learn by playing, and they play with everything. Learning environment for children nowadays calls for a wonderland to explore and develop their senses in Play. In designing new campus to accommodate 300 students in 8 classrooms, we focus on breaking down the boundaries between classroom and indoor play area for kids to explore freely as they wander around the kindergarten.

The approx.1000m2 kindergarten is located in the ground and first floor of the podium of a residential tower in a busy urban setting, In spite of the 42m deep infill site with very limited access to external environment, the design sought to introduce a touch of warmness learning environment through extensive use of timber and diffused ceiling features. The specially crafted ceiling in water-drop shaped thin layer of PVC mesh is designed to generate an uniform lighting quality.

PLAYWALL is not to isolate but to connect spaces. Children penetrate the PLAYWALL via different access, climbing, crawling, sliding, searching and discovering their kindergarten. The exploration journey provides physical play and mindful play to suit different types of children including climber, telescope, speaking tube, viewing deck, look out space and pocket platform. In thirty-six bays of timber structure, the PLAYWALL gives a sense of scale to the children.

by Annette Chu, Timothy Cheung and Yan Wu

Consultation as an experience to a resort. Strong sunlight erased the details of the blue basketball court, and the blue patch of colour gave us the mental image of pool. Suddenly a very calming atmosphere. We want to reconstruct this perception in the design, focusing on the light and image.

Located at the centre of the campus, the new Student Services Centre sides with the blue outdoor playground is located in the heart of the school, giving students a space to understand and talk to each other. Private hubs are provided for intimate and confidential discussions, while common spaces allow people to gather and learn from peers.

by Annette Chu , Wendy Hui & Tommy Yeung


During our site visit, we observed the landscape formed by the Good Hope girls - how they moved from a room to external space, and to another room. They chatted, discussed, shared, talked to each other, ate... various activities happened outside the classrooms where formal teaching was conducted.

It was a very beautiful picture.

At the same time we saw inconvenience and struggle. The campus was built in three phrases, and now, except the lawn outside the library, the remaining outdoor spaces are these interstitial spaces between blocks, escape routes and external staircases.

Inspired by the intrinsic contrasts of old and new; indoor and outdoor; quiet and active; formal and informal territories of the existing school campus, the idea for a new landscape penetrating and connecting the different blocks of building emerged, and we named it the SOCIAL LANDSCAPE.

by  Annette Chu, Charis Mok, Joanna Leung, Yan Wu

Eureka was appointed by The ISF Academy to transform Charles Kao Square, a 800m2 circulation space inside the school campus, into a free space enjoyed by the members. 

Named after the pioneer, the inventor of fibre optics for telecommunications, the design of the Square needs to be liberating and inspiring. The enclosure of the Square is all glazed, allowing maximum natural light into the space. Two sides of it can be opened thereby allowing natural ventilation across in cooler months. 

Taking the form of a pavilion under the sky, the design connects different spaces of the school, bringing students, teachers and visitors together. The use of natural glued laminated timber beams help create a warm and welcoming spatial structure. Horizontally in two layers, the spatial structure acts as visual vistas, directing people moving across the Square. Around the enclosed courtyard, the timber beams come down vertically to a timber bench with cement render, forming rhythmically seats. The seats offer one a full view of the small garden with sunlight shining through.

The depth and connections of the timber beams are constructed with a continuous line of light boxes found running between two beams. Each light box is made of LED strip light with a stretched membrane below to diffuse light uniformly coming down like the sky. The effect is further enhanced by carefully designed building services, with sprinkler heads and air-grilles inserted away from the ceiling.

The design further strengthens the spatial elements adjoining the square. The existing staircase leading to the senior students’ break-out space is enlarged to become hang-out steps where students can sit around to hold informal presentation and discussion. The solid wall between The Clifford C.F. Wong Secondary Library and the Square was knocked down and replaced by a yellow cladded travertine wall and a 3-sided timber stage. This allows performances and talks to take place and links the Square with the newly renovated library. The Café is extended into the Square where students and teachers can discuss in a relaxing environment next to the courtyard. 

Charles Kao Square will be filled with various school activities taking place at different times of the day, inculcating a sense of belonging for The ISF community.

 by  Annette Chu & Timothy Cheung

Eureka in 5 years, transformed the existing campus of Yew Chung International School floor by floor to a new learning environment.

The school campus was typical, consists of two linear blocks of 50 classrooms and laboratories with open corridors, interconnected by two bridges of special rooms.

To respond to Client’s bold vision of transforming and creating new learning experience for the community,  traditional classrooms which could only facilitate lecture mode of learning are removed and replaced by learning studios, with teachers collaborative room placed strategically to create more interactions and supervision. 

With many partitions being removed, a diverse and transparent learning landscape is created. Corridors blocked by lockers are enclosed by full-height window wall, allowing abundant natural light into the interior space.  It has also increased learning area by more than 20%.  

The colour of the mullions changes in gradations from blue to pink, breaking down the long space and making students easy to navigate.  They also inform the interior colour scheme. The interior design uses various ceiling acoustics, writeable bi-folding partitions, lockers and loose furniture to create a variety of space within the open landscape to cater different learning modes.

Students can pick their own spot of learning space.  Through acknowledging presences of others and the diversity of learning modes, the design has proved to improve students’ engagement and encourage cross-disciplines collaboration.  New paradigm shift has happened inside this colourful school.

With spaces being opened up, specific acoustic materials are applied to create a comfortable environment. In additional to the carpet floor, acoustic wood wool ceiling panels are installed in teaching spaces, with suspended panels along the window wall for extra sound absorption.