INHERITED MEMORY
The project site is located to the south of Purple Mountain (Zijin Shan) and in the north part of T80 Technology Culture International Community. T80, also called No.80 Tiejiang Ying, is in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum District. The community was the campus of the National University of Governance, when Chiang Kai-shek was the principal in 1930.On the campus, there are east axis and west axis for existing buildings. Buildings along the east axis, the palace-style main entrance and offices, were designed by Mr. Zhao Shen from Shanghai Allied Architects and adopt traditional Chinese massive roof form. Constructions along west axis were designed by famous architect Mr. Tong Jun and were completed in 1947. All of the buildings in the community look magnificent with delicate details and have unique historic character. This renovation project is focusing on a 750-square-meter,two-story and hip-roof dormitory building with both a front and backyard. It is located on north end of the west axis.
Building 02A has always been used as a dormitory since1947, when it was completed, because of its plan layout. The building’s footprint is rectangle and interior space is divided evenly. The existing building has both vertical and horizontal direction masonry load-bearing wallson the plan. The second-floor slab and roof have wood structure. The exposed beams are firm and strong but designed subtly, which looks like the traditional government building. With this said, the disadvantages of this existing building structure are: some masonry has become weak and mortar has lost adhesiveness due to the building’s age; the wood slab has poor acoustic insulation; the connection between wood roof structure and load-bearing walls is too simple; and there is no water-proofing detail and insulation for roofing.The client hopes to turn this existing dormitory into their company headquarters office.
Our renovation design starts at the public area and follows the existing architectural culture and order. After the comparison and analysis, the existing staircase on the ground floor is moved to north and changed to a secondary space to the main reception lobby. The new additional1920s-style exterior entrance also reinforces the theme of the existing building and the entire community.
We want this project to carry an open and free-flowing feeling of a modern office. Thus, on the groundfloor, the east side space is to be extended in order to develop into an open space for the office. The north-south corridor will remain and a restroom will be placed on one end. On the second floor, both east and west ends rooms will be enlarged to become executive offices and the finance office will be extended as well, based on the program needs.
This renovation emphasizes the idea of refining and restoring Chinese traditional architecture design language. The new staircase will be half-open and retaining the same detail as the original 1920s stairs. All existing solid wood and cast iron handrail will be reinstalled back to new stairs.
The existing wood slab structure has distinct cross rib beams formation. Our design concept is to extract the formation and restore it to the decoration elements of there novated area, such as wall finish, suspended ceiling of the lobby and staircase, and public space partition decoration. We want to show our respect to the spirit of the existing building by applying new architectural materia land utilizing geometric space order.
Our strategy to renovate the existing structure is clear: we wish to totally replace the existing wood slab with steel and concrete structure, which reinforces the entire building structural integrity and enhances both acoustic and thermal performance; retain the majority of the vertical load-bearing walls when extending public space,while at the same time, ensure all new walls are made of light concrete blocks; and add new insulation and waterproofing layers to roof, while protecting the existing roof structure.
We humbly design this project to show our sincere respect to the architects and history. The renovated building will appear tranquil instead of aggressive on the site.We wish to present a new office space, with outer modesty and inner coziness to this community and its history.This space, endowed with affection, shall grow into a carrier of corporate culture to enhance connections amongst those who work here.
