Jianli Art Center / goa

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Text description provided by the architects. As urban history and culture are constantly evolving, historic buildings' preservation and revitalization need to integrate the spirit of the new era and new forms of business to build a vibrant and sustainable urban space. Located in the Haimen District of Nantong City, Changle Town is the hometown of Zhang Jian (1853-1926), a critical industrialist, political leader, and educator in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. The cultural tourism project developed by ZOINA Group, intended to renovate the old center of Changle under the spirit of Zhang Jian and renamed it Jianli (the Hometown of Zhang Jian). GOA undertook the master plan and design of the whole project, where Jianli Art Center acts as the gateway of the old main street, the core of the whole project. The main street of Old Changle is built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. Paved with grey stone slabs, it extends more than 300 meters from east to west, and the art center sits at the east end. Adjoining the art center is the old Changle Town Supply and Marketing Cooperative on the north, a century-old wooden building under preservation. Regarding the site, the design starts by answering the question of how to place a new cultural tourism construction within the local context of a small-volume historical building to carry on Zhang Jian’s spirit of “eradicating the old and fostering the new” while arousing a sense of cultural belonging.