Two-cluster Equestrian Center

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Architecture, Hong Kong

Project idea

The objective of the project is to create a sustainable design towards its context. The focus is on the building technology; on how the buildings are constructed and response to the environment, climate and geographical feature.

The site is in a hot climate location, where the exposure to sun is avoided while wind flow is desired. The orientation of the buildings response to the wind direction from southeast, with a limitation of solid wall and open roof that receive the wind. While the roof are designed in a such way in terms of height and position towards the sunlight that shade the used space.

Project description

Located in Kuranda (near Cairns), Australia, the equestrian center is represented by two cluster of buildings. Each cluster have two types of building. One type of building, consists of the riding hall and horse stables, use the tension roof system, supported by mast on one side with no side envelope. Another type of building acts as a tension support for the tension structure, expressed by masonry, mostly served for the human space.

The parti and concept of the building is a division of two spaces; human space and horse space, represented by the two types of building. The horse space is located at the lower part of the site, the human space at the middle, and the vehicle at the top part.

In the plan, this three layers of space is illustrated as two ‘hands’ extending with 135 degree angle, as if it tries to catch the wind flow. Each of this hand represent one cluster of tension roof structure and the masonry-system building

Technical information

The main construction system are masonry with addition of concrete lintel (for the human space) and timber (for the horse space).

The distance between is 10 meters for each architectural elements (wall, mast), and 2.5 meters while the tension cable.