Residential College Program and Concept Design

The University of Macau aspires to become internationally recognized for its excellence in teaching, research and service. It is growing quickly to accommodate an explosion of higher education enrollment growth in China. The University is developing an entirely new campus on 1.09-square-kilometer on Hengqin Island, on land donated by the People’s Republic of China. As part of this new campus development and in alignment with their Strategic Plan, the University introduced a residential college system.

Hanbury created a program and conceptual design for 12 residential colleges, each housing 630 undergraduate students between years one and four, and interior and exterior design guidelines for each to ensure the University's goals were communicated to the Executive Architect Team.

Hanbury helped the University explore how interior and exterior spaces within the colleges could contribute to, not only student success, but also to the University’s broader objectives. The team produced both a tabular and graphic program identifying the residential, academic, social and support spaces needed for each college, as well as specific site and building concepts, final design requirements and specifications for the buildings.

The goals achieved included creating a unique identity for each college while responding to the overall South China/Portuguese architectural style of Macau, and conforming to and advancing the University’s overall master plan as it related to the residential colleges.