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Architects: Atelier RenTian
- Area: 304 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Atelier RenTia, Inter_mountain images
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Lead Architects: Tian Ren
Text description provided by the architects. The project is located at the center of Niumatang village in Liyang. Originally, it was a small grove, and the open space by the grove was where villagers liked to gather and chat. Based on respect for local habits and practical needs, the local leaders decided to transform the small grove into a village assembly hall in the forest, creating a public space for showcasing the village's history and facilitating neighborhood communication and meetings. Niumatang village is a village of Wenzhou immigrants. During our communication with the local property owners, we proposed constructing a public building with distinctive Wenzhou architectural features to respond to the village's unique historical development.
In the minds of the local villagers, the assembly hall holds a status similar to that of ancestral halls in traditional villages, embodying people's hopes and dreams for the past and the future. The design of the assembly hall was chosen to echo the form of ancestral halls in traditional Wenzhou residences. Wenzhou residences in the Yongjia area have unique architectural features, especially in the eaves section, with flat ridge beams, double eaves, and upturned ends, making them highly identifiable. These architectural characteristics of the Ou style also served as the inspiration for the design of this assembly hall.
We attempted to use a steel structure instead of the original wooden structure to showcase this distinctive roof form. While preserving the traditional design features, the assembly hall now has a column-free space with a greater span and a pleasant sense of lightness, significantly reducing construction costs and shortening the construction period. The steel structure was entirely prefabricated in the factory and then welded and installed on-site, ensuring a quick and efficient construction process.
The building walls are constructed using infill walls. The infill walls consist of an inner layer of hollow bricks and an outer layer of local stones laid in a mosaic pattern. This not only responds to the local context but also demonstrates sustainable practices by reusing discarded bricks, stones, and broken tiles. The steel columns are exposed on the exterior façade, showcasing the similarity to the logical structure of traditional wooden structures with infill walls. It represents both a traditional inheritance and a contemporary interpretation. The Niumatang assembly hall attempts to reinterpret the traditional wooden structure system with a steel structure system. While preserving the traditional charm, it better adapts to actual requirements such as construction period, cost, sustainability, and achieving a large-span space. The incorporation of recycled materials as mosaic infill walls breathe new life into the traditional building construction system.
