Changzhou, China
Led by Meinhard von Gerkan, Nikolaus Goetze, and Magdalene Weiss at gmp Architecten together with landscape Architects WES GmbH and lighting designers Lichtvision Design, the design for the new Changzhou Culture Plaza located to the north of the new city center of Changzhou is comprised of six identical, freestanding building modules that are angled towards each other and arranged in a 2 x 3 cluster.
Each bold module is based on a footprint area of 70 x 70 meters and, as an autonomous unit with an individual entrance and lobby, accommodates one of the functions of the Culture Plaza, such as the art museum, library, hotel, and offices.
Visually, the 50-meter-high buildings appear as cubes that are hollowed-out on two sides. In this way, together they create a roofed-over public space that interlinks with the park, forming a spatially diverse city landscape.
The watercourse that runs diagonally across the 17-hectare site flows in a canyon-like sculpted cutting, which links the commercial functions with each other at basement level.
Following the basic idea of the concept, the façades have been designed according to the principle of unity with diversity.
A natural stone façade dominates the orthogonal building envelope; the curved cut-out areas are given prominence by an elegantly glazed façade, making the cut edges visible, and sculpturally emphasizing the abstract shape of the buildings.
In this way, different characters are acquired by the building envelopes, which are spanned by a uniform horizontal façade structure with wide aluminum louvers that follow the curvature beneath the cantilever.
At the same time, the horizontal natural stone or metal louvers serve as external solar screening that significantly increase the energy efficiency of the buildings.
During the day, the solid stone bands form a strong, rhythmical contrast to the dark glazed areas.
At night, when the buildings are internally illuminated with a scheme by Lichtvision Design, the arched glazed areas are invitingly lit and, beneath the almost 40-meter-high arches, create impressive interaction between the inside and outside with continually varying angles of view.
The loadbearing structure consists of reinforced concrete cores and steel construction that diagonally cantilevers by almost 40 meters on two sides of the core area.
The vertical load is transferred downwards via compression arches, and the horizontal forces are transferred to the reinforced concrete cores via the cantilever floors.
On the upper floors of the modules, there are large column-free exhibition spaces and Sky Gardens of almost 4,000 square meters.
Project: Changzhou Culture Plaza
Architects: gmp Architecten
Architects in Charge: Meinhard von Gerkan, Nikolaus Goetze, and Magdalene Weiss
Project Leads for the Competition: Buhong Kong and Martin Friedrich
Competition Team: Dominika Gnatowicz, Sebastian Schmidt, Yao Yao, and Lanlan Jiang
Project Lead Detail Designers: Buhong Kong, Xiaodi Fan, and Ying Chen
Detail Design Team: Ralf Donner, Martin Friedrich, Alex C. Fu, Meng Huang, Peiying Ren, Shusan Gao, Zexin Wang, Xi Wang, and Sevde Erdogan
Project Management China: Lei Cai and Xiaodong Sa
Architects of Record: ICDA
Lighting Designers: Lichtvision Design GmbH and THUPDI, Dept. of Lighting Planning & Design
Structural Engineers: Schlaich Bergermann Partner
Façade Consultans: SuP Ingeneure GmbH
Landscape Architects: WES GmbH LandschaftsArchitektur
Clients: Changzhou Jinling Investment and Construction Co. Ltd.
Photographers: Schran Image
