Hutong Children's Library & Art Centre by ZAO/standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke
06/10/2016.
2016 Aga Khan Awards for Architecture [Beijing] China
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
A small-scale project that enriches bonds amongst communities and revives Hutong life.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
The project is designed to be a communal children’s reading room and art centre, free and open to the neighbourhood - Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing, China. Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Site plan. Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke)
Floor plans. Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke)
Roof plan. Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke)
Sections. Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke)
Sections. Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke)
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture.
This project has been awarded in the 2016 Aga Khan Awards for Architecture. The venue where was develop the project by Zao/standardarchitecture in in Cha'er Hutong, a quiet spot one kilometre from Tiananmen Square in the city centre. Number 8 in this neighbourhood, located near a major mosque, is a typical da-za-yuan (big-messy-courtyard) once occupied by over a dozen families.
The courtyard is about 300-400 years old and once housed a temple that was then turned into residences in the 1950s. Over the past fifty or sixty years, each family built a small add-on kitchen in the courtyard. Almost all of them have been wiped out with the renovation practices of the past years.
In redesigning, renovating and reusing the informal add-on structures instead of eliminating them, it was intended to recognise them as an important historical layer and as a critical embodiment of Beijing’s contemporary civil life in Hutongs that has so often been neglected. In concert with the families, a nine-metre-square children's library built of plywood was inserted underneath the pitched roof of an existing building.
Under a big Chinese scholar tree, one of the former kitchens was redesigned into a six-metre-square miniature art space made from traditional bluish-grey brick. Through this small-scale intervention in the courtyard, bonds between communities have been strengthened and the Hutong life of local residents enriched.
The courtyard is about 300-400 years old and once housed a temple that was then turned into residences in the 1950s. Over the past fifty or sixty years, each family built a small add-on kitchen in the courtyard. Almost all of them have been wiped out with the renovation practices of the past years.
In redesigning, renovating and reusing the informal add-on structures instead of eliminating them, it was intended to recognise them as an important historical layer and as a critical embodiment of Beijing’s contemporary civil life in Hutongs that has so often been neglected. In concert with the families, a nine-metre-square children's library built of plywood was inserted underneath the pitched roof of an existing building.
Under a big Chinese scholar tree, one of the former kitchens was redesigned into a six-metre-square miniature art space made from traditional bluish-grey brick. Through this small-scale intervention in the courtyard, bonds between communities have been strengthened and the Hutong life of local residents enriched.
More information
Architect
ZAO/standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke
Dates
Design.- 2012-2014
Completed.- 2014
Size
Built area.- 190 m²; Site area.- 350 m²
Cliente
Dashilar Investment
Zhang Ke ZAO/standardarchitecture
Founded by Zhang Ke in 2001, ZAO/standardarchitecture is a leading new generation design firm engaged in practices of planning, architecture, landscape, and product design. Based on a wide range of realized buildings and landscapes in the past ten years, the studio has emerged as the most critical and realistic practice among the youngest generation of Chinese architects and designers.
Consciously distance themselves from many of the other “typical” young generation architects who are swallowed by a trend of noise making, the office remain detached in a time of media frenzy and their focus is consistently positioned on the realization of urban visions and ideas. Although standardarchitecture’s built works often take exceptionally provocative visual results, their buildings and landscapes are always rooted in the historic and cultural settings with a degree of intellectual debate.
Consciously distance themselves from many of the other “typical” young generation architects who are swallowed by a trend of noise making, the office remain detached in a time of media frenzy and their focus is consistently positioned on the realization of urban visions and ideas. Although standardarchitecture’s built works often take exceptionally provocative visual results, their buildings and landscapes are always rooted in the historic and cultural settings with a degree of intellectual debate.
