Taizhou, Wenling, China
Created for the Wenling Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Press, and Publication, the Wenling Museum, designed by CCTN Architectural Design, has a non-linear architectural form offering people strong impressions and creating an iconic building for the area.
According to Cheng Taining, CEO of CCTN Architectural Design, the non-linear language is not just simply creating new architectural forms, but also focusing on the psychological structure and cultural aesthetics of a wide range of people so that it can be integrated into the regional context in an appropriate way.
The design of this project has been awarded a 2021 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
As far as this building is concerned, the generation and changes of its space and form all come from the response to the site environment, functional requirements, and constructional conditions, where the building gets a higher quality in terms of space, materiality, and construction.
Wenling is located in the hilly coastal area of eastern Zhejiang Province. A large number of grottoes are created and preserved after quarrying for generations.
During the investigation, the breathtaking natural stone landscapes among the mountains had left a deep impression on the architects and also became the crucial trigger for the original design of the project.
Facing the river on one side, the project site is shaped like a narrow triangle on such a plain terrain. Pursuant to the planning, the surrounding land will be gradually filled with super high-rises such as hotels, offices, and residences. Therefore, the museum will soon be enclosed.
With such site conditions, a common architectural form may easily become a ‘podium’ of the surrounding high building.
Thus, the design must consider the museum’s position and volume in the urban environment.
The design process starts from the divergence and convergence of various problems and thoughts after the site survey, including the narrow triangular land, the yet-to-be-built high-rises, the space with diverse circulations but unclear spatial needs, and certain local cultural orientation.
The irregular shape of rocks in the final design would be a natural result after the integration of all perspectives.
The basic appearance of the rock-like building is derived from the continuous cutting and stacking of the triangular shape of the site in the design process.
One of its purposes is to utilize such a small-scale plot more reasonably and efficiently.
The touchdown part of the building rises upward, forming light and a flexible impression as if a rock falls to the city incidentally.
Besides, it aims to leave more outdoor spaces —to the best of its ability— on the ground floor near the street and water, so that the water bank is connected with the square, making the building more public in this narrow land.
A huge opening is designed on the fourth elevation of the building to blend the interior with the exterior of the building, echoing mountains on the far side.
Within the building, except for a small number of enclosed exhibition halls, all spaces such as the ground floor hall, the temporary exhibition halls on the second floor, and the communication space between the exhibition halls are all integrated into one, presenting everlasting vitality like Changyu Stone Cave Scenic Area in Wenling City, Zhejiang Province.
The building has distinctive morphological characteristics, which remind people of the local stone cultures and traditions.
It also conforms to the literati’s aesthetic taste of “slim, wrinkled, hollowed, penetrating” on stones.
The morphological characteristics of this building not only inherit the more abstract and deeper cultural genes of this city, but also the local traditions and even Chinese culture.
At the same time, the architects had in-depth considerations of the environment where the building is located. Hence, the building is truly connected to the city.
Throughout the whole design process, the space, structure, and skin are highly unified and advanced simultaneously.
In terms of structure selection, a steel truss-core tube system is adopted.
Four reinforced concrete core tubes and a steel column with a diameter of 1m support the building vertically, and the maximum span between the core tubes and between the vertical components and the core tubes is 35m.
The structure is arranged with circumferential trusses at equal intervals in the horizontal direction, and trusses are applied to the connections between the core tube and the external truss, and the large-span channel on the bottom floor.
In this way, the building realizes the integration of structures and space.
The exterior wall design adopts a double-layer open curtain wall system.
The base material includes profiled steel sheet, galvanized steel sheet, EPDM coil waterproof layer.
Considering the final effects of the sound insulation, heat insulation, and preservation of the exterior materials, as well as construction convenience and its qualities, the anodized aluminum honeycomb panels are finally selected.
This material will show different colors and textures under different light and color temperatures, making the building more expressive.
In order to ensure the accuracy of the project, the curtain wall design adopts BIM technology which uses multiple infrared stations to locate the curtain wall in three dimensions.
Due to a large number of folded faces of aluminum panels on the external wall, the handover situation is very complicated.
During the design process, the aluminum plate is cut into 9,460 basic units, and the splicing is completed by integral bending.
Through careful and reasonable design and construction, the integrity of the exterior wall effect is guaranteed.
Project: Wenling Museum
Architects: CCTN Architectural Design Co., Ltd.
Client: Wenling Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Press, and Publication
General Contractor: Zhejiang Fangyuan Construction Co., Ltd.
Photographer: Chen Chang