Netscape

Project idea

The site location is in the center of Suzhou which is a long history city. The surroundings are historical buildings, so that it is important to take care
of the urban context and the habits of local neighbors.
The original site contains 3 regular buildings which were built in the 1950s, the grid structure is the existing structure and another important
characteristic is the brick façade which across the 3 buildings. There are many different small companies and factories in the existing buildings in
the past, so my program is related to the original function – shared studio, which allows different small companies to share the different space of
the buildings.

Project description

The whole inspiration is from the different elements in Suzhou Chinese gardens, especially the ‘Taihu’ Stone, which has been given by many thoughts in the traditional Chinese culture and the shape of ‘Taihu’ Stone was made by the lake water over thousand years.
In specific, different generations saw the same stone and express the different ideas, and people can see others expression in the same space which can give people different sense of space-time. According to this idea, it is important to keep the part elements of the original buildings to let the people receive the multi-history of the original site.

Technical information

In addition, the most significant characteristic is the ‘Chi’ which contains the natural energy through the solid and void space of the stone. If translated into the Western architecture language, the whole inspiration can be explained as the ‘flowability’ and ‘flexibility’. The circulation of the reconstruction is very multivariate through the different buildings. And
each floor has different shape and space, vertical gardens are also added into each floor which let the users have access to the natural environment in the buildings. Considering the local residents, the ground floor is designed into a garden which allows the whole space is opened in this reconstruction which provides a semi-public space the users and
neighbors.

Documentation

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