The new 550,000 square metre Fujian Professional Photonic Technical College in South East China is being wholly funded by a Taiwanese Company, Ching Fu, one of Taiwan’s largest privately owned companies with over forty years of modern shipbuilding experience. The ground breaking heralds the development of significant cultural and trade links between Taiwan and the Chinese province of Fujian, which previously hosted the country’s primary coastal defense system against Taiwan, now dismantled to make way for new bilaterally funded projects in the region.

Ching Fu has recently commissioned 10 DESIGN as Lead Master Planner for this 12, 000 person campus along with architectural commissions for Phase 1 and 2 building designs. 10’s precedent experience in the Taiwan-China Cross Strait region has played a significant part in Ching Fu’s decision on the contract award. 10 previously designed the 93 hectare master plan for the Central Business District Mixed Use Development in Pingtan (also in Fujian), which is the Governments’ flagship development to spur trade and political communications between Taiwan and China

Ted Givens, Design Partner of 10 and Lead Designer of the project, explains, “The core concept is to interweave a very large scale college into a natural setting, preserving and enhancing the sites existing character. We seek to design the most non-invasive set of structures possible, balanced against the creation of a very efficient college. The master plan is built upon a backbone of passive solar principles that are supplemented and enhanced by a series of highly innovative sustainable technologies including the use of photocatalytic nano-coatings, algae for air purification and for the production of organic fertilizer, thermal cooling systems, green walls, hydro power, and solar power. The Photonic College will become test beds for the development of new products and systems.”