Company The Oval Partnership

Project KPMG-CCTF Community Centre

Location Cifeng village, Sichuan province, China

Size 450 sq-m

Project leader Dr Lin Hao

Project team China Children and Teenagers’ Fund – client; Oval Partnership – KPMG China architect; China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute, Calder Latif Associates, YBkouki China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute – C&S consultants; China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute, CIBSE Electrical Services Group UK – E&M consultants; Beijing Tang_Landscape Plan & Design Center – landscape architect; Chengdu Urban Rivers Association – environmental/ecology consultant

 

KPMG China, in partnership with China Children and Teenagers’ Fund and the Chengdu Women’s Federation, built this exemplar green community centre in Cifeng village as part of efforts to renovate the earthquake-devastated region and promote the development of the local rural communities.

The centre is the world’s first long-span reconstituted bamboo structure, with a series of innovative green and intelligent features to reduce environmental impact and improve sustainable rural community development. The tall, curving single-storey structure captures the varying hourly and seasonal angles of the sun and air flow, effectively making additional heating, cooling and lighting nearly unnecessary

The project’s main construction materials came from renewable resources – such as a fully-reconstituted bamboo structure prefabricated at a local factory and sourced from local sustainable forests, pollution-free agricultural straw fibre panels for the wall and roof system, bamboo cladding and floor finish.

Advanced communication connectivity and intelligent facilities for rural education include the nation’s first CCTF School Safety & Emergency Experience Centre programme and integrates a 2,000-year-old ‘God of Earth temple’ within the design.

This philanthropy project has received pro bono manpower, resources, expertise and financial support from 30 international and domestic green enterprises, research institutions and government agencies through partnership. It also has advanced sustainable rural community development by means of corporate sponsorship, public participation and public-private partnership, serving as a leading example for improving sustainable construction, educational, cultural and recreational facilities in rural communities.

Research has shown that the YBkouki and Dasso bamboo products used in the project are CO₂-neutral due to the fact that bamboo is an important and very fast CO₂ ‘fixator’. Other green and intelligent features include local food production and organic farm training and native species planting and sustainable drainage.