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?Architecture [ Architecture ]

Unit / 

Spatial Forces

Chengdu Community Center

Revitalizing obsolete structures into community innovation space

Category

February 7, 2023

Date

Area

700

sqm

The Baitou Town community center renovation project in Hele Community aims to revitalize the area by transforming the existing building into a dynamic multi-functional space. Utilizing traditional architectural cues, vertical landscaping, and kinetic facades, the design enhances the building's interaction with the community garden below and fosters a "seeing and being seen relationship." With a focus on flexibility, the second and third floors accommodate diverse activities through sliding walls, creating a transition between different functional areas. Additionally, the project emphasizes ecology, incorporating timber construction to align with ecological principles and cultural heritage in China.

In the heart of Hele Community, Baitou Town, a community center renovation project adapts the functional limitations, so that the building can "continuously and actively" penetrate into the daily life of residents, to gradually stimulate the vitality of the community in an acupuncture manner, and gradually lead to the possibility of more diverse and more independent residents' activities. The scheme aims to create a multi-functional community space with rich "expressions" by using the existing structure, implant an impactful experience in the daily environment of community residents, so as to activate the surrounding environment, and through activities and Services attract people. Traditional architectural clues such as sloping roofs and overhanging buildings. The interface is blocked, and the connection with the site is relatively disconnected. The concrete frame structure unit is homogeneous and single. Good structural condition. We hope to establish a strong " seeing and being seen relationship" with the community garden below by strengthening the existence of the building facade as a "space" and using the daily situations that people walk through as "exhibits". This will open up endless possibilities for creating more fun community events. "Vertical garden" not only means folding the landscape and green into the building, but more importantly, increasing the "contact area" between people and situations. We believe that increasing the exchange frequency of situations is an effective means to enhance the vitality of the community, whether it is for the daily life of the community or the communication between neighbors in the post-pandemic era. In the design of the detailed structure, we draw nutrients from the style and features of traditional local buildings such as "stilted buildings", and treat the first floor as several solid "boxes", so that the upper building presents a "placed" posture. Columns are set on the outside to create a floating effect. The façade is supported by simple wooden columns, creating a free composite space on the ground floor. In addition, we defined a new elevation for the building part by placing the "inverted sloping roof" on the top, not only as a roof garden but also as a response to the original space type and facade order. In terms of function, we believe that the second and third floors should be multi-modal spaces and different plan layouts can be created through sliding walls according to the needs of the scene. When all the walls are slid out, the entire space acts as a whole, allowing for large gatherings or group events. In addition, the sliding wall can be visually presented on the east façade, creating a more attractive architectural image By allocating the three existing traffic cores, the six main functional parts of commerce, reading, activities, management, office, and exhibition are divided, and streamlined and do not interfere with each other. We hope to establish a strong "seeing and being seen relationship" with the community garden below by strengthening the existence of the building facade as a "space" and using the daily situations that people walk through as "exhibits". This will open up endless possibilities for creating more fun community events. The second-floor space contains the community reading center and community activity center. Through the utilization and adjustment of the existing units, it is possible to ensure that the "noisy" and "quiet" areas do not interfere with each other and are easily connected. At the same time, with the help of the double-height space and the stepped reading area, a richer spatial experience is created. The main space on the third floor is the community entrepreneurship incubation center and achievement display center. The different needs of the exhibition and office can be ensured through the sliding partition wall. At the same time, the roof garden can be easily accessed with the help of the vertical streamline of the west facade As the endpoint of the entire "vertical garden" moving line, the roof garden has chosen a closed strategy in the design. This is not only conducive to the expansion of the exhibition space but also forms a "climate boundary" together with the entire west facade, responding to the local climate in a greener and lower-carbon manner. As the double facade system improves the quality of life inside and outside the space, it is the interface layer between the building and its context. The outermost layer, with a simple mesh grid, supports the vegetation to create a symbiotic relationship between the built members and natural elements, producing a green facade, or rather, a living facade. Inspired by simple traditional ways, the lower part of the facade at each floor is a thin planter box, where different types of plants thrive as shown in the adjacent figure The Image below illustrates the full layer of timber implemented in its various forms. On the right side, is an in-depth illustration of the ecological cycle of timber from tree to product, energy, and buildings. Ecological buildings follow a formal and cultural genealogy of vernacular architecture that dates back to millennia. In the context of China, wood must be revived, and community temples must be thought about in Timber. New constructions, especially at the small and medium scale must leverage the benefits of timber as a construction material due to its economic, social, and ecological contribution to sustainability. In the He Le community center, we create an inclusive process with an end-to-end solution. Creating timber members requires a process that engages workforce and labor across educational readiness and financial status, from technical and basic workforce to higher education. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qRQlHpFGrnFc1B-u9LR6uo_abUXn9vZ3DmBaWAKPP9U/edit?usp=sharing

Project Team

Firas Safieddine
Yimeng Wei

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