CLIENT: Development and Construction Committee of Hangzhou Linping New City, Hangzhou Yuhang City Construction Group Ltd.
PLACE: Yuhang, China
PROJECT: Landscape, Masterplan, Architecture, Lighting, Interior Design
DESIGNERS: 5+1AA, Studio Marco Piva
in collaboration with Arup
SITE AREA: Masterplan & Landscape: at about 210.000 square meters
Architecture, Lighting, Interior Design: at about 70.000 square meters
DATE: 2013
PROJECT PHASE: Tender, short-listed project
Historic Premise_The City of Yuhang and its culture
Yuhang is a district of the Zhejiang province, under the jurisdiction of Hangzhou, just 150 km far from Shanghai.
The city is the birthplace of Liangzhu Primitive Culture, which boasts the Dawn of Chinese Civilization and is an important prehistoric site of humankind on earth.
It is often called “hometown of fish and rice, house of silk, garden of flowers and fruits and land of multiple cultures”.
With picturesque landscapes, Yuhang has very rich natural and historical heritages.
Client requirements
The client requirement were for a forward-looking project, that at the same time consider the public and commercial needs. The project had to be a landmark of Linping new town, and one of the most influential public areas of Hangzhou: an artistic cultural center that integrate architecture, water system, plaza, green space with an advanced managing experience, making sure about the sustainability of the overall project.
The Cultural and Art Center has to be constituted by three sections: (1) The performance architecture, which includes the grand theater, the small theater and the cultural and art plaza, (2) the culture and art center, which includes the art gallery, cultural center and the library. (3) Shuiting eastern-lake landscape design, including the lake and surrounding.
DESIGN CONCEPT_INSPIRATION
Based on the client’s brief, 5+1AA, Studio Marco Piva and Arup developed a design concept based on the idea of dynamical forms, able to define functional interlaced spaces but also modulated, to strongly interact with the environment reacting to natural or artificial lights, generating visual surprises and reflection effects.
The inspirations came from History, Local culture, Art and Nature .
History: the representative tribal ornament that best defines the Liangzhou Culture is the deity insignia. As an archetypal icon of the Liangzhou Culture, these insignias were used on all jade artifacts. The jade from this culture is characterized by finely worked large ritual jades. From the most exemplary artefacts of the culture, the cong (cylinders), our concept took its shape.
Local Culture: the Chinese ribbon dance is a performance that features dancers whirling long strips of silk through the air. The silk ribbons are attached to short, varnished sticks, and as the dancer manipulates the silk, they will also perform specific steps and leaps. The Chinese ribbon dance started during China’s Han Dynasty, which stretched from 206 B.C.E. to 420 C.E. The ribbon’s dynamic movement gave us the idea of the projec’s structure.
Contemporary Art: Richard Serra is one of the most representative artist of Land Art. He creates site-specific installations, frequently on a scale that dwarfs the observer. His works challenge viewers’perception of their bodies in relation to interior spaces and landscapes, and often encourages movement in and around his sculptures. His contemporary and monumental arcs, spirals, and ellipses engages the viewer in an altered experience of space, the one we want to achieve in The new Cultural and Art Center of Yuhang.
Nature: Water has created the conditions for the millenarian Chinese Culture to grow and flourish. It creates the magic territory of interaction between nature and human spaces. Interaction between water and land generates spaces for people to meet, relax and enjoy open-air activities. The design of the Cultural and Art Center is based on a Podium, emerging from the Water like a huge Turtle, symbol of longevity and wisdom.
DESIGN CONCEPT_ DEVELOPMENT
Masterplan & Landscape
The landscape Design developed for the Culture and Art Center of Yuhang District is aimed to build a sustainable, ecofriendly environment, well balanced between the city and nature, the so called Water Park.
The Water Park is system of woods, bushes, flower borders, trees. It lays all along the river shores, to create a green structure, easily reachable from any area of the new Linping City by pedestrian and bicycle path, by small boats.
The Water Park will offer to citizens the opportunity of long relaxing walks, quiet corners where to seat, read and enjoy the beautiful vision of gardens, woods, birds and of other living species. Citizens will perceive the music of the wind blowing thru the trees over the waters, the songs of the birds...
The water of the river will shape the cultural heart of Linping New City creating the Shuiting Eastern Lake.
The Podium
.
The volume of the podium interconnects the city with the Shuiting Eastern Lake, creating a multifunctional and multilevel plaza.
The Culture Plaza, organized on different levels, steps down toward the lake.
It is divided in dynamical areas for Leisure, Cultural and exhibition events.
The cultural Plaza offer to visitors beautiful protected viewpoints opened into the vision of the lake, of the Park and of the dramatic game of volumes and surfaces given by the Grand Theatre, The Experimental Theatre, The Art Gallery and the Library
The four distinct volumes of the buildings are interconnected at the ground floor and at the mezzanine levels inside the podium.
The “Central nervous system” of the cultural complex is the “Shooting Star”, an articulated glass volume that flies over the Cultural Plaza, aimed to link the floors of the four buildings.
The design is harmonious with the surrounding environment and correspond to the city culture.
All the four building have been carefully studied from the point of view of space-organizing, people’s need, material’s choice and technical requirements
SUSTAINABILITY
The Culture and Art Center of YUHANG District has been planned to achieve the highest standards of eco sustainability and lower energy consumption stated by the Chinese current Laws, but also matching the most relevant International
Standards.
The proposed Yuhang Art District is an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits for the community of an innovative and successful approach to sustainability.
Design strategy is not limited to the construction side, but considers the entire lifecycle including energy and water used in operation..
The project aims to achieve the highest rating according to the main Chinese and international sustainability benchmarking
CERTIFICATIONS (PILLS)
Status: Competition Entry
Location: Yuhang, CN
Firm Role: Architect
Additional Credits: Project by Studio Marco Piva, 5+1AA, in collaboration with Arup
