HISTORY

Unlike our usual old towns, Lizhuang is alive: it is both a regionally renowned scenic spot and actually inhabited by people. At its entrance, we wanted to design a building that is both ordinary and special. Ordinary in the sense that the public can enter, stay and use it freely; special in the sense that people know that this contemporary space is in the old town. Walking through the old town is an experience of discovery: the age, the materials, the quirky constructions, the variety of people and the variety of life, yet the sky cut out by the roof is always simple and varied. Air, sunlight and aura flow through the building, creating a unique outdoor, semi-outdoor and indoor lifestyle. It is a harmonious relationship.

DESIGN

We try to build two systems. One is heterogeneous and varied, to adapt the building to the different needs of the site: front and back, height differences and impact on the streetscape; the other is based on reflection, with a clear structure and simple repetitions. A mimetic water and a mimetic mountain. We wanted the two systems to meet, to collide and to form a harmonious unity in the same space, yet unique. We try to respond to the needs of the city with concessions, we try to use the sense of curiosity created by the waves to attract someone to explore, we try to use human scale and shadows to create summer comfort, and we try to recycle old materials to build, so that the buildings and landscapes under the eaves seem to grow out of the earth, as if they had the consciousness of slowly waiting to be surrounded by them.