-
Architects: DDB Architects
- Area: 14973 m²
- Year: 2022
-
Photographs:Schran Image, Yan Zheng
-
Lead Architect: Qingyi Ma
Project Background. Xi'an, a renowned historical city of thirteen dynasties, boasts rich cultural resources. The Small Wild Goose Pagoda (Jianfu Temple Pagoda), which was built in Anrenfang of Chang'an City in the early Tang Dynasty, is now located within Xi'an Museum. Due to its special geographical location and history of humanity, it has been designated as the historical and cultural area of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, bearing witness to the city’s long development. In December 2018, Xi'an launched the project called "Comprehensive Renovation of Small Wild Goose Pagoda Historical and Cultural Area", which aims to establish a museum and tourist service center in the Anrenfang heritage site, covering an area of approximately 12,600 square meters. In the overall planning of historic preservation, the design starts from how to deal with the relationship between architecture, historical sites, and the city, to better integrate architecture with urban life, and to recreate the historical features.
A Humble Historical Review - The Small Wild Goose Pagoda (included in the World Cultural Heritage List), Suzaku Avenue and the Eighth Cross Street in Chang’an City and the Xi'an Museum together constitute the most important historical context and spatial volume in the target area of this project. Given such a complex urban background, humility best reflects our respect for history. Based on the fabric and the urban functions of the heritage site, the project needs to coordinate itself with the surrounding features of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda. Therefore, we established a design strategy that centers on preserving the original features of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Xi'an Museum and moving the new museum and tourist service center to a supplementary role. In that case, the three buildings will face each other and respond to the historical and cultural context of this area.
Through the understanding and analysis of the idea behind the construction of Chang'an city, the concept of houses in the Tang Dynasty has been transformed into a sequence of city, square, and courtyard. The organization of the architectural space hinted at the location of the ruins, and the landscape design was also added to display where the square walls are located. The shapes are all low-profile, with orderly undulations within the 12-meter height limit, and are integrated into the overall area in a way that subtly hides them from the city.
The Vitality of Open Space. In addition to displaying and protecting the ruins, the uniqueness of this project also lies in its close integration with urban space. The ancient square walls, ditches and square courtyards are translated into contemporary physical spaces, and the historical functions of the "square walls" are demonstrated with well-proportioned landscape walls, providing venues for public activities and becoming part of the exhibitions. Referring to the layout of the site, the gaps between the volumes are designed as passages for entrance. The ascending steps on the left side of the museum will lead visitors to the second-floor platform. Even when the museum is closed, people can still have the opportunity to overlook the Small Wild Goose Pagoda from this height.
When designing the museum, the human body dimension is employed to perceive the spatial information of the ruins, containing the ruins in a large-span space and contributing to the interaction of two "mansion" spaces of the ruins and the museum. Glass floors over the ruins are used to make sure the past scenes are both visible and preservable, and the connection of gaps between the ruins serve as the visiting route. In this way, visitors can wander through history and enjoy a spatial illusion of shuttling between ancient and modern times. Additionally, the new technology of displaying also helps mobilize visitors’ physical sensation thus providing an immersive cultural experience.
Concise Architectural Language. We gained inspiration from history. The building blocks based on the layout of the ruins, combined with elements translated from different forms of roofs in the Tang Dynasty and the facade design that alternated between virtual and real, naturally constitute our own architectural language with a typical "contemporary Chinese style". Then, both the museum and the tourist service center can not only be well identified but also can be woven into the surrounding historical features. The museum is unfolded in the form of a central enclosure. The core large-span space is constructed with a glass roof with the Beam String Structure, completely wrapping the exhibition area of the main ruins. Several well-proportioned roof combinations respond to the layout of the ruins and at the same time echo the characteristics of the traditional courtyards. The tourist service center is also composed of well-proportioned volumes and roofs.
Located on one side of Eighth Cross Street, it dialogues with the exhibition hall on the other end, which allows for a historical review of Chang'an City. To avoid confusing the material of the museum with that of the ruins, new materials function as a proper medium for dealing with the relationship between the museum’s contemporary nature and the history and culture behind the site. The project chose titanium-zinc metal plates, solid wood grilles and glass curtain walls as the main facade materials. The roof uses a stacked matte metal roof to recreate the traditional image of roof tiles. Through the plain and delicate material texture, the sense of history presented echoes the cultural relics of the site, creating a humble and elegant cultural temperament.
The design purpose of the Anrenfang Heritage Museum and Anren Station is not to simply establish a city monument, but to achieve a high degree of integration between the ruins and public life. With a humble attitude, we have constructed a museum and a tourist center that match well with the history and culture of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, and we are sure they will create a story matrix assembling exhibition, education, social interaction, and humanity history experience.
