With red rocks bringing a sense of nostalgia and the long-span spatial structures adding a modern touch, a new international design landmark built in the old form with new features was officially unveiled in Beijing Municipal Administrative Center. On November 23, the Permanent Venue for Beijing Design Week, located in Zhangjiawan Design Town, celebrated its topping out ceremony. The old industrial plant will take on a new look after renovation.
Beijing Design Week was first held in 2009 with its predecessor as Beijing World Design Congress. As one of the major projects for improving Beijing’s role as the center for international exchanges, it has become an important annual international cultural event held in Beijing. However, there is no room to exhibit the fine works from previous years as well as new design products altogether. As part of the efforts to relocate functions non-essential to its role as the capital, the city decided to build Zhangjiawan Design Town in Beijing Municipal Administrative Center where the venue for Beijing Design Week settled down. The venue was transformed from the sandwich panel workshop of Beijing Beipao Light Steel Building Materials.
According to Xiang Hu, the person in charge of the project from Beijing Construction Engineering Group, the permanent venue for Beijing Design Week will cover an overall construction area of 17,000 square meters with three floors above ground and one underground after renovation, making it the largest renewal project in Zhangjiawan Design Town. As two more floors will be added to the one-floor factory workshop, the span of the steel structure is expected to increase from 6 meters to a maximum of 24 meters. In order to meet the load requirement, the project team need to reinforce the original mainframe structure.
The embodiment of the old factory is the red brick wall on the east and north facades of the building, which is composed of 62,000 handmade clay bricks, each measuring 280 mm in length, 50 mm in width and 50 mm in height. In sunlight and in shadow, the red brick curtain wall seems to come from the old days, which not only echoes the existing red brick buildings in the Beipao Light Steel Factory, but also pays tribute to the industrial history of Zhangjiawan. In order to achieve the desired result, the construction process was extremely meticulous. As the proverb goes, soft fire makes sweet malt. Experienced workers upheld their craftsman spirit by laying the clay bricks in place one by one. Since each worker could only build about 2.5 square meters a day, they spent 28 days working on this.
It’s worth mentioning that the venue uses the ground source heat pump system. A heat pump unit combined with over 150 pipes constitute the “lifeline” that powers the internal building. The spacious indoor space will be warm in winter while cool in summer with lower energy consumption.
The whole project in Beipao Light Steel Factory is divided into three phases. Phase I is the permanent venue of Beijing Design Week, which is scheduled to be fully completed in April next year. Phase II includes the buildings located to the north of the venue, which will be used as offices and for business purposes after transformation. Phase III is to build a sunken plaza to be integrated into the overall planning of the neighborhood with mat buildings.
Upon completion, the site will be used for hosting conferences, forums, exhibitions and displaying collections. During Beijing Design Week, here will become its largest outdoor exhibition venue. When the Design Week is over, it will host design-themed activities to help build Zhangjiawan Design town into a well-known cultural and artistic zone.
(Reporter: Zhao Yingying)
