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A sweeping horizontal panorama presents gad's Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard Exhibition Hall with commanding bilateral symmetry, where a central glazed pavilion wrapped in warm honey-toned timber louvers…

Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard Exhibition Hall by Wei Zhang - gad is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Golden A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Competition Category.


GoldArchitecture· 2022

Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard Exhibition Hall

by Wei Zhang - gad

Client: Gad

Golden A' Design Award Winner in Architecture Category

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Verified Award Winner

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The Design

About Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard Exhibition Hall

Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard is an exhibition hall located at Xiaoshan Innovation Polis in Hangzhou, China. The building stands next to a lake, and the setting recalls a Jiangnan watery town. Herringbone sloping roofs, white walls and black tiles form a continuous and rhythmic image. The interior is organized around a landscape atrium with a light well, following the spirit of the traditional courtyard. Natural light enters the rooms through the atrium glass. The entrance uses imitation wood poles that form a semi-transparent screen.

The Recognition

About the Golden A' Design Award

Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard Exhibition Hall is a Golden A' Design Award winner, an immensely prestigious recognition granted to first-rate, marvelous, and outstanding designs. Golden winners are exceedingly innovative, visionary, and glamorously dazzling creations that reflect the prodigy, wisdom, and prowess of their designers. Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard Exhibition Hall is expected to be a highly praised, trendsetting, and monumental invention that delivers unprecedented value. This Golden A' Design Award-winning design is a spectacular, respected project that highly benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard Exhibition Hall creates intense feelings of desire, evokes passion, encourages creativity, and fascinates us.

Where to Get It

Award-Winning Architecture and Design Services

We design transformative architectural projects combining oriental aesthetics with modern innovation. Our expertise spans exhibition halls, residences, offices, hotels, and urban complexes. With 25+ years experience and international recognition, we create spaces that honor cultural heritage while embracing contemporary functionality.

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Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
The building is located at XiaoshanInnovation Polis, and being adjacent to the lake in the place is the landscape advantage that has added the smart sense of the Jiangnan watery town. The herringbone sloping roofs and the minimalist white walls and black tiles elements give a vivid visual impression, forming an overall continuous and rhythmic picture. The herringbone undulating roof brings a rich state of space, and which seems to be a sign of the designer’s preference for the endless mountains.
Dimensions & Packaging
The light well in the traditional courtyard emphasizes spirituality and sense of belonging. The building also responds to this concept in space design, and it is overall like an enclosed hall with the internal functional organization built around a light well atrium.
Stepping into the front hall, the landscape atrium is opposite to the entrance. Natural light becomes an indoor light source through the atrium glass. The seasons change and the variety of light and shadow are all like being collected in this transparent landscape container. Combined with the waterscape, it fills the square space with the light flow sense and fresh vitality, responding to the environment characteristics of overlooking lake in the area.
Tags
Traditional courtyard, Jiangnan Watery Town, Spirituality, Sense Of Belonging
Production Technology
The entrance is made of imitative wood pole elements creating a semi-transparent curtain effect. The building facade combining with the small scene of the landscape creates a wonderful picture of mountains and rivers in Jiangnan.
Design Challenge
In this case, we try to depict the understanding of the traditional Jiangnan architecture and explore the cultural roots growing in space. And meanwhile, this project trys to answer how should architecture express the unique charm of oriental architecture with modern language.
Research
If the design is telling a kind of wisdom, a certain quality or a feeling about beauty, then culture is the train of thought hidden in the design method. In the traditional concept, oriental architecture advocates the implicit quality and avoids the direct expression. In the design concept of Jiangnan No.1 Courtyard Life Experience Hall, we respond to the spirit characteristics of the traditional Jiangnan courtyard with modern language.
Inspiration
The patio in the traditional courtyard emphasizes spirituality and sense of belonging. The building also responds to this concept in space design, and it is overall like an enclosed hall with the internal functional organization built around a patio atrium.
Project Duration
The project started in 2016 in Hangzhou, China and finished in 2018.08.
Operation Flow
Stepping into the front hall, the landscape atrium is opposite to the entrance. Natural light becomes an indoor light source through the atrium glass. The seasons change and the variety of light and shadow are all like being collected in this transparent landscape container. Combined with the waterscape, it fills the square space with the light flow sense and fresh vitality, responding to the environment characteristics of overlooking lake in the area.

When we visit the gardens, we often linger in the twists and turns of the virtual and real landscape. In the design of the experience hall, this gardening method is used in the architectural space to create a virtual and real spatial sequence. For example, the glass material used at the corner along the lake, and the Jiangnan architectural elements of the white walls and black tiles, form a virtual and real, modern and ancient, indoor and outdoor integration.
Team Members
Project Director: Wei Zhang
Project Creative: Jialiang Hu
Other Team Members: Cheng Zhang
Structure: Xiaoping Ye
Zhengchao Zhang
Water Supply and Drainage: Li Nie
HVAC: Yougui Pan
Electrical: Guoping Chen
Photographer: Yi Fan
Image Credits
Image #1: Photographer Yi Fan, Main Image, 2018.10.19.
Image #2: Photographer Yi Fan, Optional Image, 2018.10.19.
Image #3: Photographer Yi Fan, Optional Image, 2018.10.19.
Image #4: Photographer Yi Fan, Optional Image, 2018.10.19.
Image #5: Photographer Yi Fan, Optional Image, 2018.10.19.

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