The transformed cultural activity center ©CreatAR Images
Thanks to Wutopia Lab for sharing gooood
Wutopia Lab completed the facade renovation of the Community Cultural Activity Center in Fenglin Road Street, Xuhui District, Shanghai at the end of 2019. An infinitely transparent and smiling public space is created for a calm and ordinary street.
▼Appearance after renovation ©CreatAR Images
The community cultural activity center also serves as Lin Ximing’s modern paper-cutting art museum, community volunteer service center, minors activity center, Lei Feng volunteer service site, youth activity center, etc. It is a collection of multiple functions in one place It is a complex community cultural activity venue, a community public service center, and an activity venue for nearby residents’ spare time life. The original layout of the center could not meet the demand, and due to chronic water leakage, it needed to be updated and overhauled. Wutopia Lab is responsible for the facade design. The north-south Shuangfeng Road where the
center is located is lined with workshops built in the 1970s and 1980s. The street faces a continuous wall and the gables of residential buildings. Occasionally there are some shops. The streets are pleasantly sized and the street trees are well grown. Walking on Shuangfeng Road sometimes feels like a trance, and time seems a little stuck, as if you were walking on a certain street in Shanghai in the early days of reform and opening up, from Changbai to Quyang.
▼Comparison of facades before and after renovation © (left) CreatAR Images, (right) Wutopia Lab
▼Renovated cultural activity center©CreatAR Images
We would not exist without memory
The reason why I chose the community planner of Fenglin Street is that Because from April 2018 to January 2019, due to family illness, I had to come here three times a week. An unfamiliar street thus became very familiar in some way and shaped my memory. One of my memories is the not-so-long but unfriendly road from Dongan Road to the pharmacy next to Zhongshan Hospital to buy medicines. Fortunately, a section of the arcade provided me with shade and a place to catch my breath.
Fenglin Street is a densely populated area with hospitals and medical schools. There is pain, despair, but more importantly, hope. Fenglin Street has dense public housing communities built in the 1970s and 1980s. It has a large elderly population and residents have a strong sense of community belonging and localization. But these communities also appear to be aging. The expressions of the buildings and streets are quiet but somewhat dim, and their vitality seems to be fading.
▼Axonometric view ©Wutopia Lab
Design is the memory I retain
I designed the community cultural activity center to be a concrete expression of my memory. Therefore, it is necessary to dissolve the heavy fortress-like facade and create a colonnade similar to an arcade as a gray space to provide a place for passers-by to breathe.
▼Plan view after renovation, eliminating the heavy facade wall ©Wutopia Lab
I decided to use ax stone, a traditional craft that is on the verge of extinction in Shanghai, as the decorative surface of the facade. Cement mortar mixed with white pebbles is applied to the surface of the building, and after hardening, it is chiseled to form a textured stone surface pattern. Each worker can chop out about one square meter a day. This is like treating a disease, which requires patience and persistence. You won't see the results for a long time, but suddenly one day when the safety net is removed and the exquisite finish is revealed, it's all worth it.
▼The transformed facade uses cement mortar mixed with white stones ©CreatAR Images
I embedded a total of 50 metal maple leaves of three different sizes on the chopstone facade and on the ground, with side lengths of 15CM, 12CM and 8CM. . It seems to echo the maple leaf logo on Maplewood Street, but it is more to commemorate that it is the season when maple leaves are like fire, and the family's illness begins to improve, which is hope.
▼The facade is embedded with metal maple leaves of different sizes©CreatAR Images
▼Facade details©CreatAR Images
The climate boundary behind the colonnade is a fully transparent glass facade, which improves internal lighting and at the same time, because the colonnade space is bright, its publicity is enhanced It has been greatly improved and the sticky feeling of the street has been eliminated. The orange color of maple leaves becomes the edge of the arch. The flared arches prevent the arcade from looking like a piece of paper. Finally, this hopeful orange arch gives Shuangfeng Road a transparent smile. Understand all the truth of life and still love life.
▼The colonnade space behind the facade ©CreatAR Images
▼The glass facade enhances the publicity of the space©CreatAR Images
▼The colonnade and indoor space at night©CreatAR Images
The renaissance of urban micro-space is a reorganization of memory
Because it is close to the vegetable market, the entrance of the community cultural center It is the only way for many residents to buy groceries every day. During the renovation process, the surrounding enthusiastic residents have been asking about the progress of the project and are looking forward to the re-opening of the activity center and the opening of new public life. The updated community cultural activity center becomes a culmination of Shuangfeng Road, a place of revitalization. The significance of urban microspace is not only to create a beautiful scene, but to refine and reorganize the memories of individuals and residents. Memory can become the ultimate definition of our lives through different forms of expression. The renovation of the facade of the Fenglin Road Community Cultural Activity Center is a redefinition of memory.
▼Night view of the renovated building ©CreatAR Images
▼Facade metal maple leaf reflective light©CreatAR Images
Project name: Facade update of Fenglin Road Street Community Cultural Activity Center in Xuhui District
Design company: Wutopia Lab
Lead architect: Yu Ting , Minerni
Project architect: Zhao Xiaoling
Design consultation: Another architectural studio
Architectural photography: CreatAR Images
Owner unit: Fenglin Road Street, Xuhui District
Construction area: 77.8㎡
Project address: Shanghai, China
Design time: 2019.03 To 2019.05
Construction time: 2019.06 to 2019.11
