The Australian architecture firm IAPA recently won the South Song Museum Heritage Park competition and has wished to share their winning design with out readers here at ArchDaily. Follow after the break for an accompanying description and images from the architects.
South Song Imperial City underwent many changes until it eventually surrendered and disappeared as underground ruins. Today new infrastructure and buildings inhabit the place, and together it makes out the history of the site. How do we find a way to combine and benefit from the content of today as well as bringing back the memories of the past?
CONCEPT The strategy is to cover and protect the ruins with floating volumes on a flexible structural system. These floating volumes not only house the museum, they also provide viewing areas to the ruins below and allow people to experience a part of the song architecture above through the palaces and courtyards.
CENTRAL COURTYARD Within this heritage park, which is surrounded by a dynamic wall element and small villages there is a museum encased within three floating volumes above the Song ruins and below the palaces and courtyards. A strong axis connects the museum to the heritage park. People can discover the ancient ruins below layers of landscaping, palaces and museum volumes, creating an interesting dynamic between the past and future.
THE WALL AND GATE In the past, the wall has been seen as a traditional defensive structure to define the internal and external space; they are impassable. Today, defensive wall is no longer functional, and we prefer it as a bearer, connecting the external and internal, to promote the exchange of the South Song Imperial City and the City.In the design approach, the wall refers to the size and shape of historical materials, combined with the protection of the site to rebuild a part of it and use of its internal space to place some construction features.
THE VILLAGES South Song Museum project covers a wide area. After the indigenous people move out, a large number of vacant buildings will be left, which we won’t simply remove all of them but to transform the high-quality constructions so that to restore and make use of the atmosphere of Jiang-nan residential areas. Regarding the feature set for the village, it is not a simply sightseeing but an organism integrating the daily life, to achieve the cities organic updated; reflects the continuity of the architectural history and the aboriginal life, and further underlines the South Song Museum as a “live museum “.
