Project Overview

The community center is located in Suzhou, close to where the water of Dushu Lake flows out on the eastern bank of the upper reaches of the Grand Canal. It functions as a place of interaction and service for residents in surrounding areas, and it is designed to present life in an artistic manner. When architects first come to the site and enjoy the sight of the Grand Canal along its stone railing, an idea of stone and water comes to their mind naturally. The two phrases of “reclining stone beam” and “clear and green glaze” have largely depicted the future of the building, and it only calls for perfection in lightness here.

The building and landscape of the project are like cell division and differentiation. One rectangle is divided into two parallel parts: the lower part continues to be separated into four landscapes in stacking arrangement while the upper part is split into three blocks; a path lies across the water, the three blocks turn into boxes in different colors and textures, and doors and windows are kept. Logic is the soul of design, concise but not simple.

Project Commissioner

China Railway Construction Real Estate

Project Creator

Lacime Architects

Team

Song Zhaoqing(lead architect), Chen Lingfeng, Zhang Chao, Liang Yingwen, Cai Renxue, Chu Ziyuan, Guo Dan, Wu Minqi, Yan Lei, Wang Yuge, Liu Yueyi, Guo Dan

Project Brief

The overall presentation of the site is based on the water in which the environment is reflected. Just like Suzhou, it seems that all touching stories are closely associated with various water scenes. We make the water ripple lightly to indicate the existence of certain aura.

The building consists of three blocks in stacking arrangement: the light grey first-floor block is flat and lies slightly in the water to receive visitors in three directions; the silvery block floats over the first floor, and its transparent folding design unfolds gently towards the canal, showing that the landscape embraces itself; the charcoal grey block continues to rise to become the background for the light grey and silvery blocks.

The building provides different possible moments for viewers from every side. No matter whether the moment is the original intent of the building, but it often serves to enrich it. Perhaps it doesn’t come straight to the point, but gradually creates a clearer image through accumulation. The building function is not the sole purpose, because the building is the “bridge” and “window” between the environments, which helps users discover the “moon” and “dream”.

Project Innovation/Need

Concept: the concept is derived from a poem describing the scenery of the Xingchun Bridge on Mid-Autumn Festival. It uses architectural vocabulary to symbolically express the sentences "stone bridge lying over the lake" and "transparent colored glaze". The generation of this project is like the growth and development of cells. Through continuous division and differentiation, a rectangle becomes three cuboids stacked together with layers of water, which integrates landscape and architecture.

Material and curtain wall: double-layer glass curtain wall is adopted for the transparent surface of the second floor volume. The inner layer is a photoelectric curtain wall, which can provide an open view and a varied electro-optical effect at night. The outer layer is a decorative glass curtain wall, and the hanging fixation and invisible frame are joined together to make it extremely simple and thin.

Design Challenge

Architectural effect and structural form: In terms of architectural performance, in order to create the effect that the volume of the second floor is suspended on the volume of the first floor, a certain degree of structural separation between the volumes is required, which requires that the volume of the second floor should be cantilever over the volume of the first floor. After careful consideration, in regard for the proportion of the architectural form, increasing the cantilever distance means a higher beam section, which will cause the height of the second floor volume to be too heavy and top-heavy. Architects use the height of the parapet to hide the trussed beams, allowing the cantilevered space on the second floor to hang upside down. Finally, the height of the floor beam is only 500mm at 16m of the largest cantilever, realizing the unity of form, space and structure.

The project is located on the east bank of the upper Huodi Pond section of the Dushu Lake, near the outlet of Dushu Lake. The developer positions the residential area as a modernist style. As the representative image of the community, this project interprets canal culture in a modernist way, symbolically expressing the "stone bridge lying over the lake" and "transparent colored glaze" in ancient poems through materials and composition.

Sustainability

The project improves the energy efficiency ratio of heating and air conditioning equipment by enhancing the heat preservation and heat insulation performance of building envelope. This energy saving measure can guarantee the same thermal comfort and indoor thermal and humidity environment parameters. Total energy consumption for heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting should be reduced by 50 percent compared to the situation where no energy saving measures has been taken.

Water supply and drainage energy saving measures: water-saving design is adopted for toilets, washrooms, showers and other facilities by using low-flow devices and intelligent control system.

All sanitary fittings are water - saving products.

Electrical energy saving measures: reactive power compensation is considered at the low voltage side of the power substation; set up automatic building management system; low consumption and high efficiency energy and energy-saving lamps are used for lighting.

Energy saving measures for HVAC: This project adopts the centralized central air conditioning host mode with ice storage and gas hot water units as the cold and hot sources. The rooms are designed with openable exterior windows, and natural wind can be used to achieve ventilation when necessary, and internal shading design is adopted for natural lighting. The fresh air and exhaust equipment in each space adopts total heat exchanger to realize heat exchange. The energy generated during the ventilation will be recovered, and the total heat exchanger is set up independently on each floor.

Architecture - Commercial - International

This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations in commercial projects. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow.
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