Resilient city living room: Yungang District Cultural Center - Hall 5
Datong • Shanxi • China • 2021-2022
Datong has always been the central city of northern China in history, with the name of "a generation of Beijing, two dynasties, an important town in China, and an important place in Gyeonggi", it is an important military town and commercial center city in the northern region of all dynasties, and it is also the first batch of historical and cultural cities in China. As a traditional "coal capital" in the era of industrialization, Datong has pursued a "sustainable" transformation of the city in recent years, and implemented projects such as shaping urban characteristics and building ecological space. In this context, Yungang District was established in 2018 and has become a new gateway to the city.
Status: Ongoing
Time: 2021-2022
Client: Yungang District Government
Type: Bid / Winning Bid
Contents: Cultural Buildings / Landmark Buildings / Workers' Cultural Palace / Theaters / Sports Buildings / Urban Planning Pavilions / Archives / Science and Technology Museums / Groups / Public Buildings
GFA/plot area: 54,000 m² / 82,059 m²
Principal Architect: Liu Xiangcheng
Chief Architect: Liu Xiangcheng
Design team: Wang Pengju
Partner: China Construction Third Engineering Engineering Design Co., Ltd
The form and transparent materials of the individual buildings create a sense of lightness and levitation of clouds, while the texture and metal curtain wall create a sense of fluidity and futurism
Located at the intersection of the east-west and north-south axes of Yungang New District, the Yungang District Urban Culture Group Project includes five functional entities: a workers' activity center, a gymnasium, an urban planning hall, a science and technology museum and an archive, with a total construction area of 54,000 square meters.
Yi Architecture fully investigates the development status, problems and visions of the new district, introduces the international cutting-edge theory of "resilient city", starts from the scale of city-community-building, combines building groups, community public space and urban development strategies, integrates environmental resources and spatial elements on a larger urban scale, and creates a monumental place of symbiosis with the city.
The spatial layout of the area where the urban cultural group of Yungang District is located
Aerial view of Yungang cultural group
01: Clouds and Distant Mountains: Flowing Urban Imagery
Affinity for spatial structure
The five venues are spread out horizontally in the form of small volumes
The civic cultural center is the spiritual home of the city, and the architectural form needs to evoke the feeling of being close to the people and equal space. Based on this consideration, the five venues are designed as five independent building units, which are spread out horizontally in the form of small volumes. In contrast to the vertical spatial form, the horizontal spatial structure brings a sense of harmony and calm in spatial psychology, triggers a down-to-earth sense of identity, and is conducive to enhancing social psychological tolerance and resilience.
Flowing urban imagery
Translation of the urban imagery of the clouds and the distant mountains
The name of "Yungang" originates from "Yungang Grottoes", which originated in the middle of the Ming Dynasty and has the meaning of "Yunjian Mountain". As the cultural coordinates of the city, the cultural group translates its architectural form into the image of "cloud" and "mountain" that has a profound relationship with Yungang, and uses streamlined modern design techniques to create an elegant and soft architectural form.
The architectural language of the five individual buildings is the same and the forms are rich and different. The building cantilevers from the bottom to the top, using a large area of transparent materials to create a sense of lightness and levitation of "clouds". The heterogeneous transverse texture of the façade creates a sense of fluidity and strong tension in the form, while the metal curtain wall gives the building a sense of futurism and modernity, implying that the new city is ready to fly for the future. According to Morse Pechham, a space that is airy and varied gives us a sense of agility and openness.
02: Square and circulation: an urban living room open to the people
The Urban Culture Group project aims to build a more inclusive and resilient community, increase interaction, communication and understanding between different social groups by creating a shared, equal and convenient public space, and enhance the emotional connection between citizens and the land and the city.
Square ·Gathering Momentum· Datong
The "square" is the intersection of public life, the birthplace of early politics, and an important form of contemporary public space.
The square forms a centripetal and non-closed enclosed relationship, creating the "potential" of space
In the design of the cultural group, the five venues are spread out in a circular shape along the central landscape square, forming a contrast with the comprehensive citizen service center on the north side, and the two squares together form a center for regional citizen activities and gathering. The plaza connects the main entrances of the five venues, forming a flow of people. The circular group makes the line of sight in all directions firmly locked to the core point of the square space, forming a centripetal and non-closed enclosed relationship, creating the "potential" of the space. Paving lines outline the central fountain of the plaza, reinforcing this visual center.
Streamline · Roaming · landscape
At the same time, the roaming route is deliberately designed with elevation fluctuations. Citizens wander around this city square after tea and dinner, just like strolling through the winding paths of the city's landscape.
The five venues are interspersed with greenery to create a green space in the center of the city, and the paving line of the outer ring freehand outlines a roaming path, making the space lazy and interesting directional.
At the same time, the roaming route is deliberately designed with elevation fluctuations. Citizens wander around this city square after tea and dinner, just like strolling through the winding paths of the city's landscape.
The freehand roaming path creates an urban landscape and poetic green public space for citizens to wander
The deliberate difference in the height of the road surface increases the strolling interest of the landscape path
03: Venues and Functions: Diverse and Complementary Resilience:
Functional division diagram of the five major venues
The five venues adopt the method of group layout, the functions are complementary, follow the concept of overall layout, and combine the scale advantages and layout advantages of the five venues to form a cluster building that complements the outside and unifies the inside. Near the square is the entrance of the city's democracy, which gathers people in the square, and together with the comprehensive citizen service center on the north side, it creates the core activity area of the future new district. The far end of the building is the staff and logistics entrance, which realizes the internal and external partition. The basement connects five monomers in series to form an internal closed loop. The five museums are linked to provide more complete hardware support for serving the public.
Gymnasium indoors
Interior of the Science Museum
Interior of the Urban Planning Pavilion
Archives Interior
The antechamber of the Workers' Cultural Hall
Audience Hall of the Palace of Workers' Culture
