LI City Study / Greater Dog Architects
“Demolishing is a decision of easiness and short term,”said Anne Lacaton. “It is a waste of many things – a waste of energy, a waste of material, and a waste of history.” The sense of life in architecture depends on the duration of time, which is carefully associated to the use situation. However, structures likewise have their own life process, whether it is the decrease of the building’s own functions, modifications in social needs, or brand-new requirements by regional policies, all of which end up being opportunities for old structures to be invigorated.
Renovation: Changes in Architectural and Spatial Functions – Li City Study lies in the Tianmu Lake Resort in Liyang City. As a government-sponsored public well-being task, it understands the benefit of shared metropolitan cultural areas and supplies a public space for residents and travelers to check out books totally free 24 hr a day. Before the remodelling, the building was a workplace. The federal government proposed brand-new social functions for it to adjust to public requirements while showing the humanistic take care of the general public. During the remodelling procedure, Greater Dog Architects performed extensive research study on the existing building, rooted in the building’s past, and reacted to the brand-new functions. Respecting the website environment, building approaches, and the initial frame structure of the building, the designers followed the concepts of sustainability to the best degree, making use of the existing space, producing a cultural and memory space container, and a shared reading and public interaction place within a restricted development structure.
Reuse: Retention and Reuse of Architectural Framework – The building has 3 above-ground floorings and one underground flooring with a frame structure. The semi-outdoor entryway that is held up from the building and the intentionally extended circular traffic circulation separates the building from the loud street. At the exact same time, the designers eliminated the outside walls, exposing the initial beams and columns frame. They cut the initial flooring pieces and included brand-new obstacle circular structural beams on the primary exterior. It brings modifications to the brand-new structure and interior flooring pieces while more highlighting the contemporary language of the existing structure system. Through the discussion in between the old and brand-new structural language, a healthy look exists for an existing building.
Sustainability: Introducing Natural Light into the Building – Greater Dog Architects’ style group likewise restructured the form of window openings. The frameless inner curved glass contrasts with the heavy frame structure, highlighting the clear architectural shapes. More seeing angles towards the outdoors are included around the curved wall, getting in touch with the external nature: the openness of the inner curved floor-to-ceiling glass and the surroundings of Tianmu Lake outside produce a fascinating interaction, developing a discussion in between the lake and the building. The outward-curving arc shape on the exterior continues the form language of the inner curved beams, developing a brand-new outside facade mix while producing varied reading circumstances inside. Based on this shape, the window system ends up being more personal, and the slim skylight at the top of the outward-curving arc uses another method to link windows with nature: searching for at the sky, and feeling the poetic motion of light and clouds.
By rearranging the traffic flow throughout the building and utilizing spiral staircases in the round space, the primary areas on each flooring are linked. The circular skylight presents natural light and more boosts the connection in between the exterior and interior of the stairwell. In the building remodelling technique, natural light is taken full advantage of, producing several connections in between the initially closed “box” and the external environment, recognizing the sustainability of the building and its environments. The clear summary of the cylinder is revealed on the exterior, sprinkled within the initial beams and columns frame system. The gray wood tiles are re-dyed and pushed from recycled wood, which includes natural texture to the building and brings brand-new memories and heat. The exposed beam and column structure is covered in reddish-brown outside paint, and the exact same color shown by the glass blurs the summary of the interior, more highlighting the natural texture of the wood shingles.
Renewal: Extending the Use of the Building with New Functions – The easy interior highlights the screen and plan of books, producing a poetic and peaceful reading space through the shaping of the sloping roofing form. At the exact same time, the intervention of the sloping roofing structure breaks the enclosed nature of the initial flooring pieces, opening the spatial relationship in between the upper and lower floorings as much as possible, and incorporating several functions: the sloping roofing form integrates the first-floor coffee counter function with the book screen requires on the very first and 2nd floorings. The exact same style is continued in the bookshelf, with the scale minimized and cantilevered above the racks, hiding the screen of lighting. A staircase corner forms a clustered reading location, where the handmade texture of glazed ceramic bricks and the rough texture of reddish-brown flooring bricks produce an unified product context with the exterior of the building.
In addition to the redesign of the exterior, flow, and interior functions, the building has actually likewise been upgraded functionally, and technical obstacles come across throughout the procedure have actually been substantively dealt with: the style group made the optimum possible changes to the building’s load-bearing capability to attain brand-new loads within the space; a detailed a/c system remodelling was performed for this building from the early 1990s, in addition to the redesign of the emergency exit, lighting application systems, and so on… the initial structure that did not fulfill the requirements for seismic capability and structural procedures was recalculated and enhanced, making it possible for the building to get in a brand-new life process. Although the refurbished building is various from the surrounding structures in the Tianmu Lake beautiful location, the designer constantly demands a “appropriate” sense of percentage, so that a sensible scale in between the existing structure and the brand-new massing. The refurbished Li City Study is perfectly incorporated into the city and its environments with a brand-new texture, bringing more vigor to public cultural requirements.
In the context of metropolitan advancement moving from incremental growth to equip updating in China, the reuse of existing structures attains their sustainability. And the affordable “treatment” of the drawbacks of existing structures to extend the life span of the building. This method to architecture is based upon the acknowledgment of today, rooted in the past, and at the exact same time, reacting to today. Its reuse not just ends up being a brand-new public architectural landmark for the beautiful location however likewise brings more memories to the building, showing the significance of architecture as a lasting existence.
