Tianjin, China

RUF Architects were appointed by Tianjin Zexin to design the new exhibition center in the city of Tianjin, located next to Yongding River.

The base is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Xinzhi Road and Chenliu Road in Beichen District, Tianjin, and is located in the park.

This impressive design was short-listed for a 2021 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

The construction area of ​​the park is 2935 sqm, of which the construction area is 450 sqm.

The project is a steel-glulam (Glulam) structure, with 8 wooden columns and 3 oblique wooden columns at the front end, realizing an indoor column-free space of 34.0mx14.5m and an outdoor cantilever of 3.7m.

The leaf-shaped roof is composed of smoky gray aluminum-magnesium-manganese tiles and glass skylights.

The large-scale outdoor cantilever combined with the large-area glass curtain on the bottom layer creates a floating feeling, just like water droplets suspended in the air.

Numerous rivers converge in Tianjin, bringing thousands of years of canal transport.

Among which Yongding River runs thousands of miles from the north to the sea.

The project is located on the side of the winding tributary of Yongding River.

In an endless meadow without a clear edge, the relationship between the building and the environment is the sense of floating.

The design started from the roof; the team tried to use symbolic architectural language to establish a connection with the historical environment.

Imagining a crystal clear water drop that would quietly dissolve into the endless and winding river, its metaphorical polysemy develops.

In the eyes of architects, it is a drop of water; in the eyes of children, it is more like a leaf, representing the hope of spring; in the farmers’ eyes, it might be a shining seed; in the eyes of historians, it might be a drop of tears.

Or it could also be oilpaper umbrellas, helmets, beetles, high heels…

The water drop shape is placed into the site diagonally, which not only elongates the traffic flow from the city interface to the entrance but also makes the water drop shape more apparent.

The far-reaching cornice and extensive use of glass present a floating roof. Accompanied by the swaying shadow of the trees, the roof provides charming tranquility.

The building does not have a clear main entrance but used three exposed diagonal wooden posts at the front to define the entrance space.

The size of the wooden posts’ cross-section is similar to that of the surrounding tree trunks, making it easier to blend into the environment, thus enhance the floating roof.

Before entering the exhibition space, one enters a lowered transitional space under the eaves and then gradually steps under the leaf-shaped skylight.

The architects deliberately lowered the interference from direct daylight by controlling the size of the skylight, so as to ensure the soft and quiet atmosphere inside.

The biggest challenge they faced implementing this project is the large span and overhang in the structure.

After several rounds of structural tests, they finished this umbrella-shaped spoke arch architecture consists of three circular steel beams and 68 radial red pine beams.

The interior has 8 wooden pillars and 3 diagonal wooden pillars at the front end. Structurally, they realized a 34.0mx14.5m indoor pillar-free area and a 3.7m outdoor cantilever.

Using smoke-gray aluminum-magnesium-manganese shingles, ultra-white tempered glass, and the spruce ceiling, the leaf-shaped exterior contour completes the expression of the microscopic force.

Tianjin Zexin Exhibition Center has a sales display and logistics office, an 11-meter space under the eve, a single large-scale display space, a finance room, a storage room, toilets, and several sales offices for logistics.

The cavity of the roof board and inclined beam, as well as the cavity of the main ring beam, are used to hide all pipelines, including water, electricity, and air conditioning.

Project: Tianjin Zarsion Exhibition Center
Architects: RUF architects
Architect in Charge: Mingbo Qian
Client: Tianjin Zexin
Contractor: China Construction Technology Group Co., Ltd.
Landscape Architects: WJ Design
Photographers: Yijie Hu