Cai Yuanpei Square and Jiemin Library / UAD

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Text description provided by the architects. This project is located in a historical and cultural block in Shaoxing, renowned as Wang Xizhi’s Native Place. The construction includes the improvement and upgrading of the former Cai Yuanpei Square, the renovation and refurbishment of Jiemin Cinema, and the new srtuctures of Jiemin Library. As the block inherits the city’s cultural features and distinctive construction style, which have accumulated and evolved over time in urban fabric and architectural features, there exists both healthy communication and undesirable ruptures across time. In a historical context which is dynamically developing, we dialectically approach a series of sites within the project, namely Jiemin Cinema, Julong Lane, Shaoxing Fifth Hospital, Cai Yuanpei Square, the neighboring Cai Yuanpei Former Residence and Jiefang Road, for there intertwines the existing modernity and the occurred tradition which makes the block unforgotten, but miscellaneous. Our renewal and renovation work, based on node analysis of this ancient city, making full use of historical figures and events through vicissitudes and strangely scattered architectural spaces and venues from different times, activate Jiemin Library’s new functions to jointly shoulder the responsibility with Cai Yuanpei Former Residence, a national cultural relics protection unit, of enriching public cultural service and powering the ancient city.