Text description provided by the architects. Song County's three-in-one construction project is located in the new city across the Yi River. On a site of less than 9,000㎡, it contains the main functions of a museum, an archive, and an urban planning museum, with an above-ground construction area of 10,000㎡ and a floor area ratio of 1.14 which make the site extremely constrained. However, it is the first comprehensive cultural facility in Song County that preserves and exhibits historical memory and future vision.
Nature. For human beings, the natural landscape is everlasting and forms the historical scenery memory for generations. The Eight Scenes of Song County are the structured presentation of this common memory. Among the eight scenes, Stream Sound of Autumn and the Seven Peaks surround the new city. Therefore, responding to the natural landscape nearby in an abstract way becomes the intuitive choice in order to anchor the building in this place.
The Duality of Mountain & River. The duality of the mountain & river is integrated with the emptiness & entity of volume, the opening & closing of space, and the logic of functions, and is expressed by the combination of geometric forms. The glass roofs of the public space are like streams rushing down from the mountains, covering the main hall and the foyer of the archives on two sides.
Traveling Among the Mountains and Streams. Upon entering the museum, visitors will be surrounded by mountains and boulders overhanging above the hall. They can trace the spatial flow of streams through the valley, with unexpected twists and turns. The mood and spirits of the ancient poet who glorify the mountains, streams, and forests, would be felt to some extent.
The Bottoms of Distant Mountains are Invisible. The bottoms of distant mountains, the roots of distant trees, and the hull of distant boats are invisible. It is the logic of painting and gardening. (Chen Congzhou, Talking about Gardens). Similarly, in the building the facade of the ground floor surrounded by colonnades and glass is set back, holding the majestic mountains above them.
Traditional Courtyard. Local traditional dwellings in Song County are generally courtyards consisting of the main house and the eastern and western wings, which are relatively spacious and suitable for better sunlight in winter. The spatial layout of this project can be seen as a combination of such courtyards, with one on the front and another on the side. The two halls are glass-roofed, both of which are directly open to the outside, echoing the pattern of local dwellings.
Fujiezhouza. The ground floor along the streets sets back to form a continuous colonnade, similar to the Fujiezhouza of ancient architecture. The width-to-height ratio between the columns is close to √2, which is one of the most common ratios in classical Chinese architecture according to the research of Prof. Wang Guixiang and Wang Nan. The glass roof, like a flowing stream, forms a canopy at the main entrance. The form of steel column heads under the canopy derives from the traditional Dou Gong.
Exploration of Dou Gong. Japanese architects were known for their innovative design of traditional Dou Gong. In this project, the designer explored a different approach that kept the idea of duality by refining the Dou and Gong independently. The combination of components still follows the traditional logic so that the figure is both abstract and figurative.
Realistic Issue of City. The site is surrounded by high-rise buildings and is very narrow. Even so, the building takes great effort to set back from the streets to create a foreground space. The 4-meter-wide colonnade along the streets provides a semi-outdoor space that is available to the public all the time. The volume of the building is restrained in a diagonal direction with low volumes in the front and high volumes in the back, making the space of the crossroads broader.
Realistic Issue of Spatial Efficiency. To accommodate a variety of spaces such as museums, archives, and Urban planning exhibition hall, and a conference hall within a capacity of 10,000 square meters, the plan of the building is very compact. Public spaces, stairs, elevators, and restrooms are shared as far as possible. An urban planning exhibition hall with crowd visitors is arranged on the ground floor. The museum locates on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The archive locates on floors 3-5, with an independent foyer on the northwest side which also serves the conference hall.
Realistic Issue of Material and Structure. The surface of the upper volume is made of light-colored limestone, while the gable and colonnade on the ground floor are made of dark granite. The limestone slabs are used in three different sizes to reinforce the overall horizontality and the natural appearance. Efforts were also made in the structural design, such as using concrete-filled steel tubular columns and Beam String Structure to obtain a light and graceful vision.
Passive Green Building Technology. In order to reduce the greenhouse effect in the summer, three layers of Low-E insulating glass with plated dots are used on the roof of the hall, and electric openable louvers were installed serving to take away the heat under the glass roof by natural ventilation.
Exploring the Maximum Convention. In the design of this project, regional culture was generalized into three aspects: nature, tradition, and reality. The possibility of the optimal solution, somehow likes the maximum convention of function values in mathematics was explored. This methodology is intended to create a built environment that can fulfill the realistic requirements with appropriate strategies, respond to the expectation of cultural continuation, and reflect the original scenery hidden in the heart of local residents.
