GRAND PRIX DU DESIGN PARIS 2023

Cultural Building

Best of Cultural architecture 

The Exhibition Hall for the Achievements of the 30th Anniversary of China’s Implementation of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
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In February 2021, China began to prepare for the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The venue of the conference was located in Wuhan, a city with many lakes. Therefore, the important supporting building of the conference, the Exhibition Hall for the Achievements of the 30th Anniversary of China's Implementation of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, was located in East Lake of Wuhan. We hope to revitalize and regenerate the old factory through the design, and implant new cultural scenes and display functions while retaining the memory of the place. By referring to the shape of waterfowl wings and combining with the lift and fold curves of traditional Chinese wooden buildings, we designed a shed roof with deep eaves, and set a mezzanine in the higher side of slope facing the large lake to form a viewing platform. Following the “explore structure directly tradition”of ancient Chinese architecture,we deliberately exposed the entire structure to reveal the expressive wooden structure system under the eaves.

Agency : Baofeng Li/Wuhan Institute of Landscape Architecture Design Co., LTD

Professor, doctor, doctoral supervisor, national first-class registered architect, visiting scholar at Technical University of Munich, Germany in 1988 and 2000-2001. Chairman of Wuhan Huazhong University of Science and Technology Architectural Planning and Design Institute Co., Ltd., president of "New Architecture" magazine, deputy director of the Green Building Academic Committee of the Architectural Society of China, director of the Architectural Society of China, and senior member of the Architectural Society of China.
Focus on the study of the characteristics of the place and the excavation of the regional culture, and try to build a building that belongs to the here and now. In recent years, he has focused on contemporary wooden structures, and strives to design buildings that are not only low-carbon and energy-saving, but also have regional characteristics and the spirit of the times.

Best of Cultural architecture 

City Renovation
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Designer: YANG YIN

Graduated from Tianjin University School of Architecture with a major in interior design.
Member of the Interior Branch of the Architectural Association of China. Worked in Beijing Hongao Tianjin Branch (chief designer),
Advice:Design – Design is not just about design, it's a cultural and spiritual quest.

Best of Cultural architecture 

Heating Staition Digital Art Community
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No. 4955 Yindu Road was originally a heat station in Minhang District, Shanghai. It brought light and warmth to the city in the 1990s. It has the characteristics of industrial buildings in the 1990s: towering chimneys, huge steel frame structures, empty concrete, space, long tunnels, etc. Today, the old factories that have retired after industrial transformation carry unique memories of the times, and their transformation has become a key link in the revival of urban culture in the new era.
The transformation of this project aims to take the transformation of space cultural capital as an opportunity to combine the industrialized symbols of the last century with the characteristics of the current digital age. On the one hand, the warmth is preserved, the space is carefully intervened, and the historical heritage of the park is continued; on the other hand, modern design techniques are injected into the space to create a diversified and digital modern place that integrates art production, commercial activities, and aesthetic education.
Minhang District Thermal Power Plant has transformed from a single workshop space to a diverse cultural compound space. This transformation is quite difficult. Because the original production function of the factory building has created its single shape and non-daily scale, but it will become a part of urban life in the future, which is quite different from the original spatial scale and daily life scale. Therefore, we hope to fully preserve its characteristics and integrate them into normal life and work situations through the method of "repairing the old as the old and partially updating".
As the most important building in the factory area, the size of the boiler room (2# factory building) is astonishing. Although it is only four stories high, we are still shocked by the huge trapezoidal coal scuttle and the large indoor atrium. The other coal shed (3# factory building) has only one floor, but it is more than ten meters high, and you can feel your insignificance when you are in it. There is also a tall chimney and a trestle in the center of the factory area. This chimney has been standing here and has become an important symbol of the factory area and even the whole of Xinzhuang village. Although the surrounding area is overgrown with weeds and ruined walls, it also has a special flavor.
Adhering to the design concept of "renovating the old as the old and partially renewing", the facade design principle of the entire coal shed (3# factory building) is to retain the original wall and use modern glass curtains for the newly added part. When designing the south facade of the boiler room (2# plant), we designed a relatively modern facade on the first floor and installed eye-catching do or covers and glass doors with a certain industrial feel to highlight the entire entrance. Its facade has many doors and windows of different shapes, such as square, circular, triangular, etc. As a trace of the times, we hope to keep them.
The main landscape space of the factory area is located between the boiler room (2# factory building) and the coal shed (3# factory building). We sorted out the land, kept the chimney and some bricks and stones, and left a spacious display place for artists. We try our best to renovate the entire landscape design based on not destroying its original industrial atmosphere to achieve new artistic effects.
We are the planners and users of the space, and define how it is used. At the same time, we are also poets of the space, and we need to sing the unique stories and vicissitudes of this space. At any time, we all hope that someone can stop and watch the scene we created. Maybe a beam of light hits the mottled wall, and the shadows outlined can arouse infinite excitement and echo in your heart.

Agency: Shanghai Deqiu Environmental Art Co., Ltd.

Our company has always advocated the design service of environmental space integration. The building, its indoor space, and the outdoor environment are regarded as interpenetrating and interdependent whole to provide customers with more systematic, complete, and comprehensive vertical services. And to achieve a professional special design. Therefore, in 2006, a special environmental design team was formed to create the "Deqiu Environmental " design brand, and a registered special design subsidiary - Shanghai Deqiu Environmental Art Co., Ltd. was established.
The company has gathered excellent domestic design forces and has more than 50 professional landscape designers, landscape engineers, and interior designers, including undergraduates, graduates, masters, and doctors. Provide services with international professional standards and Shanghai norms nationwide.
At present, the main business scope of Deqiu Environmental includes: Residential landscape and planning design, commercial complex (including shopping complex, office, and technology creative park) landscape and planning design, hotel and resort landscape design, urban space design, public green space design; office (including commercial office, group office) Interior design, the interior design of residences (including apartments and villa model houses), and interior design of commercial spaces, hotels, clubs, leisure and entertainment spaces, etc.; and provide furniture planning, artwork planning, and professional lighting design services. The company's main customer groups include Minsheng Bank, Dongdu International, Tianan Real Estate, Dingfeng Real Estate, Greenland Group, Zhuanyuan Real Estate, Xinmin Real Estate, Dongyuan Real Estate, China Communications Third Aviation Bureau, Bright Group, Penghui Real Estate, Overseas Chinese Town, Construction Engineering Real estate and other real estate development agencies, enterprises and institutions, and local governments.
In the development process of Deqiu environmental design, whether it is the scale of the company or the operation of the enterprise, Deqiu has achieved very good results. Through continuous improvement, we have gradually formed a unique business philosophy, a perfect customer service system, strict quality evaluation standards, and a good teamwork model. From planning, scheme, preliminary expansion, and construction drawing to construction site coordination and cooperation, it serves the owner professionally, holistically, and to the maximum extent. With high-quality, efficient, professional design and good customer service, it has been unanimously praised by many experts and customers.

The YANGLIUQING microtheatre
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Located in Xiqing District, Tianjin, along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal,the ancient town of Yangliuqing once served as the hub dock of water transportation connecting the North and South. Since the establishment of the town in the Jin Dynasty, it has gone through the Yuan, Ming, Qing, and the Republic of China dynasties, with a history of over a thousand years. With more and more choices of transportation and logistics in the contemporary world, the necessity of the Grand Canal has been declining year by year, and so do the unique geographical location and economic significance of the ancient town. The traditional ancient architectures in this town, which are mainly made of blue bricks and gray tiles, have been gradually left behind by the tide of people and the times.

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In 2021, along with the implementation of the national "Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal crossing the National Cultural Park", the mini-theater of Yangliuqing as the initially launched project of the national cultural park, was brought back to the spotlight again. In addition to revitalizing the local economy and providing a venue for traditional opera and cross talk for the local residents, the project also plays a significant role in building a new platform for the inheritance of the traditional Chinese opera and cultures. The design team refined and reconstructed the traditional architectural features of Yangliuqing based on their knowing of traditional dwellings in northern China: using local bricks and gray tiles to ensure the inheritance of local traditions while allowing the new building to better integrate into the environment and enhance the overall visual unity; the form of the structure is optimized and reconstructed by transforming the traditional sloped roof into a continuous curved surface, like the wave and the winding mountain water.
On top of this, considering that the size of the theater might overwhelm the surrounding ancient structures, the design team combined with the practical and functional requirements and adjusted the height: the ridge is the stage part of the theater, the height of the floor should also meet the requirements of the stage exhibition, while the height of the lower one is the audience seats, effectively reducing the overall height of the structure. In the open area, the design team has not only taken the need for outdoor activities in the square into account, but also cleverly combined part of the roof with the audience stands, so that the theater can take part in the daily life of all the residents in this town, providing a recreational zone for pedestrians and children.
Based on innovation, this project not only inherits the traditional elements and memories of Yangliuqing, but also sets up a new direction for the modernization, and injecting new vitality into this ancient town.

Agency:  Tianjin Zhujian Design Co., LTD

A group of young designers, after leaving the real estate design industry, have launched our dream plan in 2021. We established Tianjin Zhujian Design Co., Ltd to pursue our goals of creating wonderful lives for freer future.
We returned to the imaginative Chinese countryside, thinking about the relation between space and humanity and how to better realize their spiritual interactions. For that matter, we, based on architectural design, indoor design and landscape design, as well as the history, cultural features of the project location, continue to polish and perfect experiencing product design.

Intelligent Form
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Brand-new methods and ideas arose as computational aided design technology was increasingly improved and introduced into architectural design at the end of 20th century. Since then, human beings have gained the capacity of form-finding with more freedom and creativity. In recent years, along with the completion of some architectural projects in organic and intricate forms, architects start to use the “morphological evolution” method to intelligently generate architectural forms inspired from the same way nature does.

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Just as above, Intelligent Form came into being. The cutting-edge method of topological optimization has been introduced in this design. Meanwhile, The bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) technique and an additive manufacturing method have been applied to design the structure and fabricate the formwork, which integrate the inspiration of natural morphological evolution into architectural component form-finding. The strategy aims to find the solution with the highest structural performance under certain material limitations by restructuring the amount of architecture materials.

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With the assistance of BESO technique, Intelligent Form is no longer stranded by environment conditions and manufacturing techniques, eventually achieving optimal structural performance and material distribution. Intelligent Form has been constructed as a prototype through 3D printing mould and casting ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC).
Together with 3D printing formworks in architectural scale and spraying thin UHPC wall components, the project is completed in an entire digital workflow with high efficiency and high quality. The techniques developed from this innovative design project for constructing free-form architectural prototypes have the potential to be applied to large-scale spatial structures and signal the future direction of façade elements manufacturing.

Agency:  China Construction Science & Technology Group Co., Ltd. & RMIT University

China Construction Science & Technology Group Co., Ltd. serves as the technical platform, the investment platform and the industry platform for the technological innovation and practice of a world top 500 enterprise, China State Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd. It deeply focuses on intelligent fabrication methods, green architectural products and future urban development. With aims of creating a leading construction science & technology group and a good companion of future urban construction and development, it’s committed to driving the reform of production modes by intelligent fabrication and boosting strategic emerging business by technological innovation.
RMIT University is not only a comprehensive public university of Australia, but also the only university of Australia granted the royal title by British royalty. Among a variety of its institutes, the institute of architecture earns the best reputation around the world for its outstanding design and mainly delves into three fields: the field of advanced architecture, the field of urban environment and the field of extension.

Ya Space!
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A playful “art museum” that saves the boring city with anti-rational humor
Memphis: mix of music and design
Memphis is a word with multiple meanings. Geographically it reminds people of Memphis City, the home of Elvis Presleys, blues and rock’n’roll. In the design field, this term represents a unique anti-rational style and the Memphis Group — an Italian design and architecture group.
Memphis Group was founded by Ettore Sottsass in the 1980s. Its name apparently came from Bob Dylan's song, “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”, which played repeatedly throughout the meeting where Ettore Sottsass gathered a group of international young designers. With bizarre lyrics and design creativity colliding, this meeting gave birth to Memphis Group and aesthetic movement led by the design collective

Revival of Memphis Aesthetics
This project is a furniture exhibition space, with Memphis furniture as main exhibits. The designer titled it “Ya Space!”, which not only echoes the nickname of Memphis City in China — “Cliff City” (“Cliff” is pronounced as “Ya” in Chinese language), but also conveys a surprising feeling that indicate the unexpected sensory experiences Memphis furniture brings to people
Memphis advocates unrestricted creative exploration, and has become the synonym of “alternative classical style” in modern design field. Its furniture features peculiar forms, bright colors and a design style liberated from minimalism and pragmatism. Classical style has always been prevailing, so the revival of Memphis style is at the right time.

Innovation in line with the times
Representative elements of Memphis style, including geometric shapes and free composition, were frequently applied to the project. The designers identified priorities for the selection of spatial materials and hues, hoping to go beyond Memphis' extreme emphasis on visual effects with enhanced textures and more sustainable concepts
Constructed by corrugated stainless steel sheets based on the design concept of “cliff”, the facade is characterized by bizarre visual effects and complex structures and techniques. During construction, the design team constantly improved the edging and connection of corrugated sheets, as well as the treatment of nodes and materials, to ensure a holistic image. The entrance is highlighted by a large exclamation point, guiding visitors to explore the unknown interior world. All the visual elements perceived beforehand constitute an “index” of the peculiar and irregular space.

Continuation and variation
The interior space is composed of two floors. 1F centers on providing unconventional experiences, and produces spatial rhythm by unique combinations of geometric shapes. The foyer features irregular stairs paved with black stone pieces, a door opening that brings a sense of order and enriches visual experiences, and a building block game-like scene which tries to break the barrier of class.
Countless visual points are formed by the combination of structures of different shapes. Every structure is a visual point, and a geometrically-cut view frame. Suspended from the ceiling, circular light boxes cast and diffuse lights, creating a surreal atmosphere of floating.
An array of cylinders form the bar counter, and several independent metal installations compose handrails of the staircase. In this space, ordinary items constitute a stage for display and experience. Lots of interior structures utilize the same materials as the walls, making them seem like objects that naturally “grow” from the space.
The entire space on 2F is used for exhibition. The interior surfaces are movable geometric screens. The design continues the concept of "view frame", with a view to bringing changes to the angles of observation. In this space, visitors can have a whole view or partial view of scenes, and can stand on tiptoe or bend down. Simple yet subtle arrangement of spatial structures produces playfulness within the space. Those structures adopt same finishes as the floor, as if they're growing from the floor.
The design of the display area is based on the concept of framed views. Through cutting and recombining the views, it brings infinite possibilities to visual experiences within the field of view and makes observation more interesting.

Designer: Li Wenqiang

Born in 1984
Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of China Academy of Art in 2008
Works: Apothecary, Alchemy, Bookstore, Way2 Bar, Monopoly, Cliff Space, Xinglanli Public Area

Best of Culture Building

Mountain House in Mist
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The house is located in an ancient mountain forest in Wuyi County, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. The village maintains complete features from old inhabitants in this area, with buildings scatters in different altitudes by the mountain line and dense trees with history of over one hundred years at the entrance. The book house sits not far from the square at the entrance, beside which is well-preserved courtyard houses made in rammed earth. The old cowshed used to locate at the yard, but was removed after it collapsed.
The book house aims to create a serene reading space that clams people down, thus attracting more young people and children to return to the mountains. It also provides a colorful and quiet place so that children and the elderly can feel freedom and happiness in this house.

Shulin Architectural Design

Founded by Chen Lin in Hangzhou in 2015, the firm is a small design agency with about ten people focusing on architecture and interiors. It uses rural research, Chinese gardens, traditional culture, and art aesthetics as its source of ideas, and independently does practical projects. Research related to architecture.
The renovation and renewal projects are the type of projects that the firm is currently exposed to most, and most of them are in the countryside. Therefore, the village is a starting point for the firm and will also be the firm's long-term base. Of course, urban renewal creative projects and interior space creation are also the research direction of the firm. The firm insists on starting from small projects, paying attention to rural tectonics, typology, respecting the authenticity of construction and the locality of materials, studying nature and architecture, the relationship between people and the environment, the new and the old, and constantly Explore new fields of architecture in practice.