London, United Kingdom
Patrick Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has won the international competition to design the new Jinghe New City Culture and Art Center to be built partly over a road in the new Jinghe New City technology hub to the north of Xi’an with meandering volumes, courtyards, and outdoor areas, as well as museum programmatic spaces placed beneath the massive building’s curved envelope.
The project is set to be built within the Jinghe Bay Academician Science & Technology Innovation district of the city.
With new scientific research institutes, Jinghe New City is growing as a science and technology hub north of Xi’an in China’s Shaanxi province.
According to Zaha Hadid Architects, the city is becoming a center for developing industries focussing on new energy and materials, artificial intelligence, and aerospace.
Informed by the existing site parameters, the architects intertwine the design scheme with the city’s existing urban masterplan to connect a new multimedia library on the north of Jinghe Avenue.
On the other hand, new performing arts theatre, multi-function halls, studios, and exhibition galleries are designed on the south via elevated courtyards, gardens, and paths that span the avenue’s eight lanes of traffic below.
The scheme expands itself with gently sloping ramps providing a gateway to the district’s network of elevated public walkways, the center weaves through the city to link its commercial and residential districts with the parks and river to the south.
The design also brings the city’s residents into the heart of the building and provides direct access to the planned metro station.
To create this fluid geometry, the designers take cues from the meandering valleys carved by the Jinghe River through the mountains and landscapes of Shaanxi province over time. The resulting shape simply emerges as an abstraction of carved-out valleys.
The studio organizes the program units by using a series of flowing volumes, layers, and surfaces that interconnect with courtyards and landscapes.
The architects explain that “the design defines a sequence of interior and exterior cultural and recreational spaces for its community.”
“The multimedia library’s terraces overlook its full-height atrium with diffusing skylights to provide a variety of public reading zones for individual and collective research,” states Zaha Hadid Architects.
“The library will integrate print publications together with immersive virtual reality technologies that expand the boundaries of learning and enrich the exchange of knowledge,” the studio adds.
The 450-capacity performing arts theatre, which can be adapted to different types of events, is located on the southern side of the avenue.
The multi-function hall, studios, and galleries are stacked and arranged around the theatre to share public areas designed to enhance accessibility and inter-disciplinary collaboration.
Incorporating passive design strategies, the use of natural ventilation in the center is realized by solar irradiation analysis and responsive site planning to help to optimize daylight and ventilation in the mild temperate climate of Jinghe New City.
This will be achieved through photovoltaic panels for on-site power generation together with rainwater collection, as Zaha Hadid Architects says, the center’s construction will also prioritize locally-produced materials with a high recycled content to achieve a 3-star certification in China’s Green Building program.
Project: Jinghe New City Culture and Art Centre
Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)
Lead Architect: Patrik Schumacher
Commercial Director: Charles Walker
Project Director: Satoshi Ohashi
Associate Director: Yang Jingwen
Project Architect: Nan Jiang
Design Team: Sanxing Zhao, Lianyuan Ye, Shaofei Zhang, Qiyue Li, Shuchen Dong, Yuan Feng, Congyue Wang, Yuling Ma, and Yanran Lu
Sustainability Team: Carlos Bausa Martinez, Bahaa Alnassrallah, and Aditya Ambare
Client: Jinghe New City Culture and Art Centre