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Architects: BIAD-ASA Studio
- Area: 157768 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Arch-Exist
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Lead Architects: Luoyi Yin
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Architectural design: Feng Xu, Xiangyuan Kong, Fangfei Chen, Li Cheng, Ning Ni, Jianwei Li, Haonan Wang
The origins of the project. The project is located in the core area of the old town of Pengzhou city, with a millennium-old temple: Longxing Temple, and a lot of historic old streets. This area is bustling with various restaurants, and teahouses, which are lining up one after another, form the most identifiable urban area in Pengzhou. However, the general conditions here are quite dilapidated, with many low-rise buildings mainly built in the 1970s and 1980s. The north of Longxing Temple there were lots of factories, most of which had already ceased production. Since 2019, the government has decided to invest in and guide the renovation of this area, in which the main functions involve commerce, culture, hotels, and residences.
Reconfigure the new center of Pengzhou city. We make sure there is a financial achievement in both the "balance of development costs" and the "balance of operating costs". Then the plan in this area about the total construct volume and the distribution ratio of different functions was made. The separation and integration of the commercial and cultural functions were achieved under the criteria of "Functional segmentation and dynamic integration".
Contemporary expression of traditional spaces. Represent the history and culture of the area with the methods of "architecturize the city". We hope to restore the urban features by reappearing the former traditional spatial image of the city. The three typical traditional spatial images of this location were “Ten-side Bush”, “Pitched-roofs” and “Sky-Line”. "Ten-sided Bush": There is a traditional plan format with mountains in the north, a flat and open space in the south, forests in the east, and a lake in the west. According to this format, we had Longxing Temple set as the center and the environment around it was renovated. To the north, a museum was built behind the temple because of its prominent height compared to the other buildings of the temple. To the south, the existing road was rebuilt to a front square. To the east, the abandoned factories were transformed into green space. To the west, a river was drawn from the north. This river goes across this entire area. Sloping roofs: Many local areas maintained the urban image of sloping roofs until the 1990s, which was the main reason why we use sloping roofs. To unfold this imagery, a special space has been created with several walkways and platforms on top of those stacked sloping roofs and throughout the entire core area. When entering this space, one can go through the impacts and shocks that only traditional cities can provide.
“Sky-Line”: In traditional cities, the low-rise residential buildings along with ancestral temples, and clock drum towers highlight the skyline, altogether composed of the urban skyline providing a unique imagery of the city. In our design, the commercial buildings in this core area are no more than three floors in height, which is quite similar to the traditional urban area. And there are several detached culture buildings on the top. Those buildings have a larger volume, and their facades were designed through which the inner structure underneath the raised eaves of the roofs can be seen. Those images recall the memory of the traditional ancestral temples and clock drum towers in the old city.
Create three-dimensional landscape public spaces, whose dimensions and volumes are in line with traditional aesthetics. Almost 80 percent of buildings of the entire project are large volumes, which should be able to accommodate modern functions. It is difficult to hide these large volumes by using traditional architectural design methods. Therefore, we made a new attempt: Build multi-level pedestrians with public spaces integrating with the landscape system, making sure to provide the visitors walking through with scenes as conforming to traditional aesthetics as many as possible. An arc-shaped large aerial corridor is built to separately define the south and north parts of the area， forming an open water surface. And we control the building height alongside the water, to avoid the sense of large-scale buildings in front of the water. All the courtyards close to the center water system are opened towards the water surface, formed as a three-section compound, to maximize the scenery line alongside the waterfront. There is an old road called “Longxing Street” that extends through our site from south to north. This Old Street has existed since the Qing Dynasty. In this project, to reproduce the view scenery and spatial sense of the old street, the original route was retained, but 3 meters below the water surface, and repaved with the old stone slabs received locally.
Maintain the living scenes within the area and create an urban space with "the hustle and bustle". The climate in Pengzhou is warm in winter and hot in summer, and the elderly people especially enjoy outdoor activities. We design a curved water corridor for them to relax and rest. Along the slope of the corridor, warm and skid-proof wooden handrails are provided. To the southeast of Longxing Temple, there is an old street named "Guihua Street". There are lots of small restaurants and charcuteries lined along both sides of the street, in which the buildings present local characteristics. To maintain the full atmosphere of “the hustle and bustle” of this street, we suggest the commercial management members operate it as a recreational street for local cuisines.
"Adapting to local conditions" implies the memory and culture of the region. According to the abbot of Longxing Temple, all the space occupied with ginkgo trees in the surrounding area belongs to the temple domain. We intended to present and extend the integral Zen imagery of the temple with ginkgoes throughout the entire core area. Furthermore, a new Buddhist Zen temple building was built in the "squeezed-out" space, which would be used for preaching and teaching. At last, a sunken Liushang Pavilion was built as well on the east side of the new Zen temple. There are lots of old buildings on the site. If all had been preserved in their original state, there would be no space for parking. Be simply removed, the urban memory of Pengzhou would be erased. For this historic area, a relatively compromised approach was made referring to the suggestions from the cultural heritage consultants. We sorted these historic buildings based on their different historical values, differentiated protection measures are taken for each category. For the typical buildings in this project, we adopted the column and tie structure and gable wall texture, which are the traditional architectural styles in western Sichuan. However, in the construction process, the bamboo materials were replaced by aluminum materials with the same color due to the strict fireproof regulations. In the production process, the locally produced gray tiles were chosen due to the large amount of usage. The texture of these locally produced gray tiles is smooth but the color is slightly lighter than the former traditional gray tiles. Although the real color of the finished gable walls, the tile roofs, as well as the building facades, are slightly lighter than the original design scheme, they still present a harmonious scenery together with the local plants.
During the design process, two main issues were been addressed. Firstly, form the area into "small volumes" with traditional images and human-friendly dimensions. Secondly, the contradictions between commercial and cultural functions should be well solved to create a new type of cultural commercial district full of“the hustle and bustle”. This attempt is aimed at injecting endless activity and vitality into this historic city.
