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Architects: Beijing Tianhua Northern Architectural Design
- Area: 8000 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:Hui Zhang
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Manufacturers: EUROART, Nippon Paint, Yihua
Text description provided by the architects. The project is located in Hotai Town, Xiqing District, Tianjin, with a scale of about 8000 ㎡. The original building was an inactive concrete frame office building which should be transformed into a warm and modern retirement center. This kind of transform is a epitome of the renew of the city under the challenge in the trend of population aging. What’s more, the transforms of elderly buildings are not only about the change of land usage, the challenge will come from the inner contradictoriness between different buildings.
It’s especially obvious in this project: there was not even one side such as The form of windows on the elevation of the building, the structural sequence of the internal column network, or the lighting and ventilation performance and so on, met the construction standards of elederly buildings as it was original an office building.
The pointcut of the design is exactly come from the contradictoriness. In actually, the process of transformation was a process of resolving contradictions and optimizing the overall quality through ingenious and reasonable design.
The primary problem to be solved is the spatial division caused by the original column network. The designers gradually optimized the layout strategy after calculating the proportion of multi-round space allocation which led to form a solution of integration to disappearance. Eventually, most of the 96 original pillars were allocated to the space outside the bedrooms and cleverly integrated into toilets and public areas. With the help of the effective plane strategy, over-adjustments of the main structure were avoided. What’s more, it also improves the overall utilization efficiency of space and makes the living environment of the elderly more spacious, comfortable and convenient.
In order to create a wonderful quality for the living rooms, the designers systematically carried out the overall design of the old people's living room to fully meet the needs of subsequent construction and use on the basis of coordinating the plane. At the same time, the old people's living rooms are arranged in a circular way, and the optimum lighting conditions are sufficient. To ensure the service efficiency, ogistics supporting spaces are centralized in areas where lighting are unfavorable but adjacent to the living rooms, while streamline crossing are reduced.
Reasonable and efficient space allocation is the basic requirement of a pension design. Spatial experience and quality are the core of pension design. To create a better lighting environment and a more relaxing public space, designers opened up the middle areas of 3, 4, 5 layers to build a widespread while poor lighting space.
In order to make the space atmosphere more affinity and have a sense of belonging, the designer placed the most typical cultural elements of the Five Avenues "courtyard" space in the atrium. The placement of "courtyard" links Tianjin's regional culture and architectural transformation characteristics with the core "human" , this creates a unique sense of intimacy and inclusiveness of spatial attributes. It is self-evident that the "courtyard" space devoted by designers plays an important role in improving the quality of space. The "courtyard" carries the memories of the old people in this city, and injects a sense of scene and story into the space. In addition, the space is high, showing a sense of verticality and ascension, shaping the sculpture and memorial of the space.
The setting of "tree" in the atrium harmonizes the excessive sculpture feeling, which not only forms the scene temperament, but also gives the space a sense of centrality. Thus, a series of public spaces, such as reading areas, rest areas, dining areas, chess and card rooms, are gradually expanded around trees to form a warm and comfortable living room space in the community. The temperament of "Autumn Tree" dominates the whole interior color and material system. Through the extensive use of wood color and warm color system, it creates a mild spatial character. Combining with all the warm solid wood furniture with chamfered corner design, it makes the whole space warm, elegant, gentle and moving, and reveals the architect's deep and delicate humanistic care in the whole design link.
In addition to the use of appropriate color tones and sufficient sunshine to create a good visual sense, in order to better meet the needs of aging, designers also introduced a comprehensive, rich detail designs. The 2.1 m wide corridor is convenient for the elderly to pass in two directions. It is equipped with anti-skid glue, soft structural lines, chamfered furniture and other suitable aging details to ensure the safety of walking for the elderly.
The interior design with ivory white and warm orange as the main tone, green fresh and active color elements, and warm sunshine outside the window echo, noble with elegance, low-key with warmth. The main body of pension centers is the elderly and service personnel. Designers should not only create a good quality of space for the former, but also ensure the efficiency of care for the latter. For this reason, the designer set up public service space around the atrium, and the transition space between the atrium and the more private housing area for the elderly set up a rest area and a service desk to meet the transition area; the service desk is located at the central point of the T-type nursing line to ensure service vision and nursing radius.
From inside to outside, the whole process of design and delicate spatial connotation deliberate, so that Yiyuan not only presents a high-quality overall atmosphere, but also shows a touching rich details; from indoor to outdoor, from space to time, all reflect the spirit of people-oriented design core. Excellent old-age architecture needs designers to build it all the way. We expect that more excellent works will emerge in the urban renewal with the deepening aging of our country.
