Text description provided by the architects. The project is located in Wuqiao village, Qiandeng, Kunshan. The original site is the supply and Marketing Cooperative of Wuqiao village. As a cooperative of the means of production department near the ferry terminal on the East River bank, it is a necessary place for North-South ship trade. Until the beginning of reform and opening up, it witnessed the prosperity of the riverside. Under the tide of new rural construction, the architectural scale of traditional villages has undergone subversive changes, most of which are overturned and rebuilt, breaking the texture of the original traditional villages in the south of the Yangtze River, and also breaking up and reorganizing the production and life of the villagers. The design team hopes to maintain the original scale of the building, resolve the gap between the new and the old after the reconstruction of the original site through the restoration of the order of the public space and the continuation of the historical texture, and rebuild the local cultural memory.
Based on the principle of respecting history and site, the transformation continues the L-shaped layout of the building, does not change the height of the original building, retains the red tile roof with local memory, and endows the building with new internal vitality through the enclosure of spatial functions. The exterior is open and transparent along the river. The South and north sides are residential houses. The facade of the building is relatively closed. The lattice wall is set to divide the internal and external space interfaces, and connect the tea room, village history hall, and reception room of the internal space.
The original building adopts a steel and wood structure roof truss with white walls and red tiles. The main structure of the building has been damaged due to age. The main gate is located on the west side, and the north and east sides are relatively closed. The enclosed courtyard on the south side is overgrown with weeds due to the lack of management and protection for a long time. The overall space streamline is not smooth and the facilities are old. In terms of architectural layout, the planar organization of mutual penetration of blocks and courtyards is adopted. Three courtyards are arranged in different functional areas, and a semi-open courtyard is designed at the junction of the south wall and the corridor, highlighting the permeability of indoor and outdoor space and introducing the effect of changing scenery step by step.
The Ba Jiao courtyard at the entrance is designed as a relatively outward courtyard, which serves as a landscape space outside the tea room, corridor, and wall, playing a guiding and connecting role; The water yard connected with the plantain yard is the main outdoor activity space of the whole building. It faces the village history museum and reception room. Bamboo, Chinese tallow, and water lily are planted along the water surface in the yard, and there are sceneries in four seasons; The inner courtyard attached to the reception room is planted with shade-loving ferns and Millennium trees, which are small and unique. The size and openness of the courtyard make different spaces blend and connect. Walking outside the courtyard, you can vaguely see the landscape inside the courtyard through the lattice brick wall, and people in the courtyard can also vaguely see the pedestrians on the road outside the building through the lattice wall.
In order to reflect the harmony between traditional architecture and modern elements, the original triangular wooden frame structure has been improved in structural treatment. By adding a beam-column system, high windows are made in the space between the roof truss and steel beams, lighting and ventilation are increased, and corridors are added to connect the internal and external spaces. The visual corridor forms a landscape relationship.
In terms of material treatment, the design team studied a variety of masonry methods for bricks. The traditional hollow brick wall and hollow lattice wall are used for brick wall construction, and the double-layer hollow masonry style is used for the courtyard wall. The steel structure beam column combined with the wood structure roof truss is a new form different from the traditional one, forming a dialogue between the new and the old. The soft decoration is also mainly hand-woven, emphasizing natural materials.
On the basis of preserving the sense of history, this transformation is to realize its transformation in the modern new lifestyle through space renewal, so that the limited space can carry more activities. The riverside courtyard, with white walls and red tiles, echoes the past and future of wujiaqiao.
