Zuoquan Township Cultural Compound: A Contemporary Narrative on the Basis of Taihang Regional Texts
Jinzhong • Shanxi • China • 2021-2023
The "Zuoquan Township Cultural Compound" (Phase I) project is located in Tongyu Town, Zuoquan County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province. Zuoquan County is located at the eastern edge of Shanxi Province, at the junction of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan provinces, and in the middle of the Taihang Ridge. The county has beautiful mountains and rivers, rich ecological resources, with an average altitude of 1,100 meters, seven mountain ranges criss-crossing and criss-crossing, and the east and west sources of the Qingzhang River meet here.
Status: Completed
Time: 2021-2023
Owner: Zuoquan Ecological and Cultural Tourism Demonstration Zone
Type: Delegate
Contents: Cultural Buildings / Complexes / Landmark Buildings / Public Buildings
GFA/plot area: 11,900 m² / 5,790 m²
Winning:
2024 DNA Paris Design Award – Grand Prize in the Public Architecture category
2023 IDA International Design Awards Silver Award in the Cultural Architecture Design Category
Finalist for the 2024 THE PLAN Awards in Italy
Principal Architect: Liu Xiangcheng
Chief Architect: Liu Xiangcheng
Partner: Tongji University Architectural Design and Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd
Photo: Yin Ming
Aerial view ©️ of Tongyu Town, Zuoquan County, Yin Ming
Zuoquan County has a unique folk cultural tradition, is a well-known "hometown of song and dance" in the country, and is known as "10,000 folk songs and 1,000 plays". "Zuoquan Blossom Tune" and Xiaohua Opera have been included in the national intangible cultural heritage protection list. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zuoquan was also the political, military, economic and cultural center of the War of Resistance behind enemy lines in North China, so there are many historical monuments here, among which the former site of the Provisional Senate of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region (hereinafter referred to as the Provisional Council) is located next to the project base. The site of the temporary meeting was built on the basis of the Yuan Dynasty house, and the traditional wooden roof is still retained.
Temporary conference site
Relationship around the project
However, at the same time, Zuoquan County has long been a key county in the national poverty alleviation and development work, until April 2019, when it withdrew from the national poverty county. Today, Zuoquan County is making use of its rich natural, cultural and tourism resources to revitalize the rural economy in the old area. The "Township Cultural Compound" in Tongyu Town is a cultural and educational base built for the villagers in this context.
The Tongyu Town Township Cultural Compound project is divided into two phases, with a total construction area of 21,900.38 square meters, of which the first phase has a total construction area of 11,900.38 square meters, covering six different functional spaces:
A. Auditorium A place used to hold various ceremonial activities in the town
B. Lecture hall is a place used for agricultural science popularization, skills training, assembly and other activities
C. Cultural and sports activity venues: Indoor and outdoor spaces used to carry out various cultural and sports activities
D. Exhibition Facilities: A space for exhibiting village history, traditional culture, and current affairs and policies
E. Public cafeteria
F. Township Hotel
Aerial view ©️ of the project Yin Ming
We call for the spirit of place. As early as ancient times, it was recognized that different places had different characteristics. This characteristic is so strong that it often determines the fundamental nature of the image of the environment of the people who inhabit it, and makes them feel that they belong to the place.
—Norberg Schultz
The project attempts to construct a spatial narrative that conforms to the spirit of place and the zeitgeist from the perspective of the user, based on the regional texts of Taihang Zuoquan: through the intertextuality between architecture and nature, the poetic theme is laid off, the rhythm of cave symbols and folk songs is used to shape touching scenes and stories, and the spatial combination of "courtyards" and "corridors" is used to arrange an open, free and resilient narrative structure, so as to provide a spatial experience that varies from person to person. Through spatial experience, users perceive the spatio-temporal order of the place, establish a sense of place, and then sublimate it into a place spirit, so as to effectively construct the social and cultural significance of the building and its regional "cultural identity".
01 Tone - Mountain, Retreat, Intergrammatical
Aerial view ©️ of the terrain Yin Ming
Tongyu Town, where the base is located, is a deep stone mountain and earth and stone mountain terrain, with fierce valley cutting, magnificent mountain undulations, and most of the rocks are exposed. The building base is located at the foot of the mountain, leaning on the mountain to the road, and facing the site of the conference on the left side 100 meters.
The architect conforms to the texture of the mountain, and uses the design of the setback platform to allow the building to climb up the mountain, reducing the amount of work and the damage to the mountain to a minimum.
Sectional view
The setback building built against the mountain conforms to the texture of the mountain and blends ©️ with the mountain Yin Ming
At the same time, in the scrutiny of the shape of the building itself, the architect adopts the rhetoric of intertextuality with the mountain according to the mountain, presenting the staggered form of low in front and high in the back, and climbing up the steps, abstracting the majestic and scattered fall of the Taihang Mountains. The block in front of the slope presents a three-layer "small leap", and the block behind the slope presents a two-story "large leap", which is connected by a staircase to the front and rear blocks.
Shape scrutiny
The staggered form of the building and the undulating mountains are intertextual ©️ Yin Ming
Standing in front of the building, the line of sight sweeps over the top of the building to the near mountain, which shows that the building is perfectly integrated with the mountain; The line of sight continues to stretch, connecting with the distant mountains, and finally disappearing into the sky. The architect believes that only when an architectural work is "one" with nature can it be timeless and monumental. In Taihang's texts, the intertextuality between architecture and mountains expresses the architect's most noble tribute to Taihang's spirit and ecological nature.
02 Scene - Cave Ancient and Modern Dual
As a local public cultural building, the township cultural compound should carry the residents' sense of local identity and shoulder the sense of responsibility for the land to continue the local context, so as to strengthen the cultural resilience of the countryside.
As the most representative form of traditional dwellings in the Taihang countryside, the cave condenses the collective memory of the people of Taihang. Journal of Tongji University(Social Sciences),2012,23(05):27.], so this spatial feature is also applied to the overall and detailed design of the project, which runs through the division of the opening system, arched colonnade and window members.
The elements of the cave are permeated by the way the openings, the arched colonnades and the window rods are divided ©️
The arched doors of traditional caves repeatedly appear on the façade of buildings as symbols, and the division of their shapes and the proportions of the openings meet the golden ratio ratio, and the form is clear and stable. This new building at the foot of Taihang Mountain is intertextual with the historic buildings of the conference 100 meters away, thus establishing a strong "continuity" between history and the present. This "continuity" lies not only in the extraction of forms from historical forms, but also in a dialogue formed through the juxtaposition of "new" and "old". Borrowing Foucault's concept of history, in this particular context, the adjacent historical site is borrowed, interpreted, continued, and reborn, because it also serves the expression of the new spirit of the times.
The arch-shaped elements of the cave highlight the continuity between the old and the new. Contemplating the project from the arch of the former site of the temporary conference is like opening a dialogue ©️ between ancient and modern Yin Ming in the "corridor of time and space".
The historical site of the temporary conference outside the arched window of the township cultural compound has been borrowed, interpreted and continued in the context of the new era, and has gained new vitality ©️ Yin Ming
While using modesty and restraint to engage in dialogue with the original regional texts, the Township Cultural Compound also makes a breakthrough use of modern geometric lines, with bright white as the main color, conveying a clear modern proposition.
The cave shape of the façade of the project echoes the traditional architecture, reflecting continuity; The stark white, clean geometric lines convey a clear modern proposition ©️ between the mountains and the traditional buildings Yin Ming
Looking at the township cultural compound from the tower of the former site of the meeting, the juxtaposition of the old and the new in the sunset of Cangshan Mountain shows a strong commemorative ©️ Yin Ming
03 Story - Order, Change, Aria
The architect hopes that this dialogue between modernity and tradition can inspire the deep emotional memory of the user, which is rooted in the local, affectionate, and Taihang aria.
When driving into Zuoquan County under Taihang Mountain, the annual folk song conference is in full swing in the selection stage, and the atmosphere of singing practice permeates the fields.
In the early morning, the girls practiced their voices while watching the children in the village square; At noon, the farmer also sang a few words from time to time. Folk songs are short, usually single repetitions or multiple continuations, and the melodic progression is dominated by a heptaphonic scale with close gradations, with occasional large jumps, which contain changes in a stable order.
The classic rhythm of the left right blossom tune
The building reproduces the melody ©️ of the folk song with a solidified visual language Liu Xiangcheng
The architectural design has become a translation of the local folk songs and the core of the local spirit, reflecting the atmospheric and stable style of the people of Taihang, as well as their pursuit of change, surprise and breakthrough in their stable and simple daily life, which is in line with the spirit of the place of the township cultural compound.
Consistent with the perspective direction of the mountain, the arch elements of the cave gradually become smaller from near to far, as if the mountain song is singing, drifting away and drifting away, long and moving ©️
The cave elements of the façade continuity are spread out, and there is a change ©️ in a strong sense of order Yin Ming
The design of the columns is symmetrical with a mirrored surface, and the repeated cave elements are continuously laid out ©️ Yin Ming
04 structure - corridor, courtyard, chapter back body
On the basis of architecture as a regional text, the architect explores a spatial narrative structure that can encourage users to explore freely, so as to construct an interactive dialogue mechanism on an equal footing between the experiencer and the building, enrich the user's experiential emotion, and sublimate it into a place spirit that is in line with the spirit of the times.
The "Shanxi Ancient Courtyard" represented by the "Jinzhong Courtyard" is one of the traditional spatial forms with a unique cultural imprint. The plan translates this cultural symbol into modernity, using the interspersing and enclosing of spatial blocks and the staggered height of the terrain to create a rich courtyard space, including the main courtyard courtyard, roof courtyard, middle courtyard, slope courtyard, step courtyard, and colonnaded courtyard, and makes the work narrative and interactive through the beginning and end of the space.
The interspersed and enclosed space blocks and the staggered height of the terrain are used to create a courtyard space ©️ with rich types and free connections Yin Ming
Function-Courtyard-Roaming Path Analysis Diagram
Each courtyard space is like a chapter of the work, each chapter can be connected to each other, and users can also customize their own roaming paths.
The colonnaded courtyard on the left side of the entrance carries the function of an outdoor exhibition hall and connects to the cultural and sports activities on the first floor of the interior.
The first chapter of the roaming narrative is a colonnaded courtyard, which carries the function of an outdoor exhibition hall and is a gray space ©️ that can be used to stay Yin Ming
The Yijian pool in the outdoor main courtyard reflects the natural and architectural landscape, expanding the visual range ©️ of Yin Ming
Entering the interior from the foyer, there are two freely selectable trail systems that allow users to choose between light and dark, inside and outside, depending on the weather and mood: one is a stepped courtyard leading to the main courtyard, where steps of different heights are set up for passage or sitting on the ground; The other is an interior staircase, which connects the auditorium on the first and second floors, and at the end of the main courtyard, where users can move freely.
The main courtyard carries the function of an outdoor exhibition hall, and a pond in the middle reflects the scenes of nature and architecture, expanding the scope of the landscape.
To the right of the main courtyard, you can walk to the rooftop courtyard above the auditorium, where users can rest and socialize with each other. From the main courtyard via the indoor staircase or up the outdoor staircase through the rooftop courtyard, the green courtyard is reached, with a vegetation coverage rate of 26% and native plants, which serves as both a viewing platform and an outdoor exhibition hall. From the middle courtyard, there is an indoor public canteen and an indoor exhibition hall, and finally leads to the township hotel.
In terms of spatial sequence, the project adopts a multi-clue and open-ended narrative, focusing on the theme of the township cultural compound, constantly switching scenes of different natures: for example, from the small-scale colonnade space, to the large-scale stepped courtyard, the auditorium, and then to the small-scale terrace café; From bright outdoor scenes, to dark indoor scenes, to bright scenes; From light-hearted and fun strolls to serious classroom scenes to open and communicative scenes, visitors can be inspired to experience emotions. And in the process of free switching and choice, users can strengthen the emotional connection with the place.
In addition, the diverse, rich and interesting public space promotes communication and interaction between users, which is conducive to enhancing the social resilience of the site. The large area of green space and the use of native plants have enhanced the ecological resilience of the project.
References
1. Norbert Schultz. The Spirit of Place: Towards an Architectural Phenomenology. Wuhan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 1995, 58-71
2. Roland Barthes. Introduction to Structural Analysis of Narrative Works. Selected Western Literature of the Twentieth Century, 1989,2.
3. Feng Jizhong. Central China Architecture,2010,28(03):177.)
4. Feng Jizhong. Times Architecture,1997,(02):4-11.
5. Lu Shaoming. Architectural Experience:Plot in Space[M].Beijing:China Architecture & Building Press,2007.
6. Lu Shaoming. Journal of Tongji University(Social Sciences),2012,23(05):25-31.)
7. Liu Xiangcheng. Exploration of the methodology of "resilient architecture" with the goal of improving urban resilience[J].Theoretical Research on Urban Construction,2023(15):100-103.)
