Berlin based design team of Peter Ruge Architekten has shared with us their project, an adaptive reuse of Xintiandi Factory saturated with new program. Supplemental images of the project and a narrative from the architects is available after the break.
The site is the historical Hangzhou Machine factory, the building concept aims to create a harmony of the sites inherent industrial character with a modern interior aesthetic. The Xintiandi old factory will be renovated into a high quality building with a combination of functions including offices, retail, hotel and multi-purpose area.
It plays a most important role in our design proposal to maintain the existing industrial structure and characteristics as much as possible. In order to accomplish the transition of the interior structure all the new spaces distributed across the four floors are organized along the exterior elevation, while in the central area of the architecture, a capacious space is retained. The length of the space is equal to the existing fabric on the horizontal level. In elevation it extends throughout all the floors. The beautiful steel roof frame structure will be retained and encased by a new glass roof, flooding the space with natural light and forming a connection between the buildings interior and exterior.
The energy of the architecture and its surroundings will flow through the capacious lobby in an undulated way and exert positive influence on the architecture.
The existing concrete facade and window to the south and north sides will be completely removed. The protruding steel-frame structure extends 1 meter beyond the existing skin. The form of the building will conserve the structure of the foundries old steel funnel. The regular structure of the steel frame echoes the horizontal and vertical grids of the architecture. Consecutively, the protruding parts of the steel-frame structure on all floors highlights the wall new connection of the existing brick walls.
These steel- frame structures are creating a double curtain wall facade. The outside layer is constructed of fall-protection glass with air seams, and the inside layer is a flexible sliding door with insulation glass. A two-storey tall outer elevation steel- frame structure and a LED multimedia display screen can be viewed from the roads near the south and north elevations.
The design of this new facade will not only demonstrate the harmony between modern and historical industrial structures, but also establish a unique architectural language that considers both past and present.
Architects: Peter Ruge Architekten Berlin + DBH Stadtplanungs GmbH Hangzhou Design Team: Pysall Ruge Architekten / Peter Ruge, Matthias Matschewski, Hysook Ahn, Alexander Andrejew, Byoung Gil Jung, Lucas Gray, Tatjana Sinelnikova, Maria Katschalova
