Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
SpActrum design team was selected to proceed with the Shaoxing Chaichangnong refurbishment and urban redevelopment project which is located in the historical old town of Shaoxing, with various buildings of several era-distinctive styles.
The renovation’s aim is to pursue the site’s cohesion by sewing together different eras with cutting-edge design new buildings, thus reinventing the site and organizing life experiences into a lively context.
The whole refurbishment and redevelopment project was recently awarded a 2021 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Sometimes the existing space becomes an element of the new, thereby leading to a rebirth of the old site.
The site, being narrow, compact, chaotic, organically grew without planning or modern sense for hundreds of years.
In 2019, it was facing a dramatic change, with an urban regeneration plan going ahead.
There are two typical paths for such areas in China: Either demolish and build anew, no matter if it is fake old Chinese-style buildings or totally new developments, or it is claimed to be a “conservation district,” where all constructions aim to set the clock back to a certain timeframe.
So, archaeology instead of architecture is taking over.
The client, part of Shaoxing’s authorities, investors from the private sector, and the architects are determined to take a different route. The organic renovation path has been set.
The first major challenge is to convert a domestic into a public area without losing the sense of density as it used to be.
Density in terms of site coverage is widely lost among new developments in surrounding areas because of fire regulations, LA VILLE RADIEUSE-like building methodology, etc.
With several site inspections, the architects realized that the existing buildings have to be viewed as synonyms for bare ground rather than buildings on the site.
After selective demolition has taken away rundown buildings which block key circulations, and the removal of unnecessary barriers, site circulation via a network of paths has come into being.
The historical importance of the structures gives “conservation bubbles” that are not to be altered dramatically.
Site coverage is high, streets being narrow and creating a sense of enclosure.
It urgently calls for space for people to stand, travel, gather, view freely.
If it can not be achieved at ground-level, it will come in the form of lifted walkways, platforms on the roof, extended terraces; if they no specific spatial elements exist, they are best converted and inter-grown into buildings.
The site does not have a ground-level; it has multiple levels of ground. Part of the buildings cannot be ‘sewn’ into a larger site.
Both new and old buildings lose their meaning of time/style; they are purely intercommunicate in form and spatial configuration. New meaning is injected through human perception and experiences.
Xingyu consists a major part of the newly built district. Its platforms wind up all the way to the top floor creating multiple layers of extensive social spaces with views of various heights.
Its form is seeking an expression of forces of stacking grounds instead of a continuous ramp.
Architects work together with structural engineers to develop a very straightforward structure system that follows the architecture of each piece of the stacking grounds, yet composes all its parts to create a standing structure in the frankest—sometimes even brutal—way.
Project: Shaoxing Chaichangnong Refurbishment and Urban Redevelopment
Architects: SpActrum
Client: Kaiyuan Mitu
General Contractor: Hangzhou Xiaoshan Guangyu Architectural Construction Ltd.
Photographers: SpActrum
