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Architects: PBA Architects, Tumushi Architects
- Area: 11000 m²
- Year: 2016
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Photographs:Zhang Chao
Background
Port-apartment, produced by Vanke Real Estate, is a well-known brand in Long rental apartment market in China. This product provides well-equipment rental space and the integration of community services for young people. Normally, convenient traffic, handy facilities, and low renovation cost are the three key points for port-apartment. The project is the ideal place to make an experiment, which is renovated by six old factory buildings in Guangzhou Tangxia Village.
New with the old
Design concept sums up 'new with the old'. Based on respecting the value of old building, it means new architecture comes from combining the old with new. the old means that we persist valuable part of old building, the new shows how new programs intervene to whole one.
Tangxia project is consisted by six same height old factory buildings which are arranged orderly. Considering overall functional layout of the building, ground floor of the first building, connecting the south side of the street, is used for commercial space. Ground floor of the second building and the gap between the first and second building, are used for the public space which can provide counseling, coffee, fitness, video, meeting and other services for young tenants. Vertical traffic of each building follows original staircase at both ends of the building. Original South Corridor of each floor are moved to the middle. Hence, new corridor cut the original space into two parts, which are transferred to the apartment units with short depth. Considering the modulus of original concrete frame structure, apartment unit is a box space which length, width and height is 5.1, 2.5 and 4.5 meters. In the box unit, bottom is a living room that has installed kitchen, storage and balcony. The upper part is the bedroom, which is connected by a small ladder.
Street side
At first, we concern that appearance of Port-apartment has a contrast view with the existing streetscape. Therefore, dark gray aluminum curtain wall, which as a backdrop for the shop signs, are used to unify the entire facade at the bottom of the first building. Above ground floor, original granitic plaster still remains on the south side of veranda. On vertical side, new partition wall is painted with bright colors randomly, and outdoor air conditioner machine is hidden by white perforated aluminum plate. due to new white plate and original plaster line, three kinds of jumping colors look vivid and fashion in street space.
Public transport corridor
Public transport corridor on west side of whole project is not only the traffic space of each building, but also the only important spatial node that can show the whole. So west side bottom wall, surfacing with dark gray aluminum curtain, unifies six buildings into a whole. The slightly upturns eaves, forms one meter deep overhangs. It built a street-like interface with the renovated guard room at the other side. both of them implies the human scale for the traffic space. There are two functions of the opening on the lower part cornice. One is for amplifying apartment entrance, which is emphasized through different color glazing. the other is called Street window. It not only provides position to poster community information, but also acts as an active element, enrich landscape of public transport corridor. The upper facade is basically retain original granitic plaster wall. To solve the problem of rain water, original open staircase is enclosed with different colored glazing.
Roof
Roofs of six buildings are connected by the steel structure bridge, which can integrate separated public space together. In the east end of roof, we proposed a scene viewing box to emphasize west view. The public kitchen and laundry are proposed on the roof. furniture and recreational landscape are combined together, which value the efficiency of roof. One of the focal point is the precast concrete, which can be organized by program. The cozy atmosphere become more reinforced because of those furniture.
Renewal significance
Tangxia Port-apartment, which is renovated from factory building , is currently the largest youth long rent apartment in Guangzhou. There are nearly 600 sets of rooms. after a short wane, More than 95% occupancy rate proved that this six buildings have a new nirvana.
