Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai

Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior PhotographyChongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography, Windows, Door, Brick, Facade, Garden, CourtyardChongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Interior Photography, BrickChongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography, WindowsChongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - More Images+ 27

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Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography
Central square view. Image © Hai Zhu

Text description provided by the architects. In January 2018, the first time going to the Jianshe Town to visit the site, we drove from the green road into the Xiangpan highway. On one side of the road is the old factory area. The site of this project is located in the old garment factory. These buildings were built in the 1960s and 1970s which are a legacy of the planned economy era.

Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography, Facade, Cityscape, Windows
aerial view after renovation. Image © Hai Zhu
Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography, Garden, Courtyard
Corridor under the big roof . Image © Hai Zhu

We hoped that this will become a park open to the neighborhood, where villagers can gather here. Sports, fitness, cultural activities, leisure, and entertainment will become a part of a normal daily routine. The design could not erase the memory of the past in a completely new form, but reactivating architecture functions and community activities through reconstruction and expansion, so as to rejuvenate the street vigor and vitality.

Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography, Windows
© Hai Zhu
Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography, Windows
Corridor under the big roof. Image © Hai Zhu

The large roof following the roof slope of the original building overhangs, the eaves are formed. The oblique cutting of the eaves makes it change from high to low, and the space of the eaves changes from narrow to wide. This change makes the space under eaves from the walking space scale gradually becomes a rest space. The form of the roof and the resulting space under the eaves, shading, rain-proofing, and viewing. As long as these three conditions are met, the semi-outdoor space will make people’s activities rich in freedom, and the large roof also seems to give the architecture a "low-brimmed hat", which hides the "face" of the architecture and the activities of people under the "hat".

Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Interior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade, Beam
Corridor under the big roof. Image © Hai Zhu
Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade, Courtyard
Patio courtyard under the big roof. Image © Hai Zhu
Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Interior Photography, Brick
Eaves. Image © Hai Zhu

The roof tiles used foreign tiles that were dismantled from the original building. These seemingly old tiles have been exposed to the sun and rain for decades. The exterior walls of the facade use old brick skins. The uneven brick wall surface produces subtle light and dark levels with the change of natural light, presenting rich and delicate expressions.

Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Interior Photography, Brick, Patio
Corridor. Image © Hai Zhu

I designed to cut openings in the large roof, and the cut roof is bent downward to form a small double-pitched roof so that a pocket patio courtyard is created under the large roof. The light falls into the courtyard, and the scenery also enters the nearby indoor space. Small-scale courtyards are interspersed in the architecture to extend the landscape to the interior and increase the level of the relationship between interior and exterior.

Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade, Garden
Corridor under the big roof. Image © Hai Zhu

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Project location

Address:No. 30, Xiangpan Road, Jianshe Town, Chongming District, Shanghai, China

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Chongming Cultural Activity Center / Studio Ku Kan Nai" 03 Oct 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/948688/chongming-cultural-activity-center-studio-ku-kan-nai> ISSN 0719-8884

Corridor under the big roof. Image © Hai Zhu

崇明建设镇大同社区文化活动中心 / 空间里建筑设计事务所

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