Platinum Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2021
Tianjin Zarsion Exhibition Center
- A' Design Award 2021 Platinum Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: RUF Architects
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 220,321
- Verification code 3CFCF78C07 · Verify this award
About Tianjin Zarsion Exhibition Center
Tianjin Zarsion is an exhibition center built beside a tributary of the Yongding River in Tianjin, China. The plan uses a water drop shape set diagonally on the site, which lengthens the approach from the city edge to the entrance. Deep eaves and large glass surfaces create a light roof that appears to float. The structure is mainly wood, supplemented by steel, and 68 radial red pine beams form an umbrella-shaped arched frame. Eight interior wooden columns allow a wide column-free hall. A leaf-shaped skylight is sized to keep the interior light soft and quiet.
FTA Group's Exhibition Center represents a distinguished contribution to contemporary architectural practice, demonstrating how curvilinear formal language can achieve both monumental presence and intimate landscape integration, the sweeping roof form suggesting influences from organic modernism while employing contemporary construction technologies and material systems that allow such ambitious geometries to be realized with precision and elegance, the design appears to engage with longstanding architectural traditions exploring the relationship between shelter and ground, between the tectonic expression of spanning structure and the atmospheric qualities of enclosed space, the extensive glazing dissolves conventional boundaries between interior and exterior, creating a pavilion-like transparency that transforms the building into a lantern within the landscape during evening hours, the careful orchestration of interior lighting establishes a warm chromatic counterpoint to the cool blue twilight, inviting approach while revealing programmatic activity within, the landscape design demonstrates equal sophistication, with organic pathway geometries and naturalistic planting compositions creating processional sequences that prepare visitors for architectural encounter, the standing seam roof cladding provides both practical weather protection and expressive formal articulation, its rhythmic striations emphasizing the roof's directional sweep while establishing a textural vocabulary that reads at multiple scales, from distant silhouette to intimate material appreciation, the photograph captures the structure at an optimal moment when artificial and natural light achieve equilibrium, allowing the architecture's formal ambitions and material refinements to be fully appreciated, viewers might contemplate how the building's organic profile establishes dialogue with natural forms while maintaining unmistakably contemporary character, and how the transparency of the envelope creates spatial continuity that extends programmatic experience into the surrounding gardens.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Architects initially tried to use symbolic architectural language to establish a connection with the historical environment.
As to layout, water drop shape is placed diagonally into the site, which not only elongates the moving line from the city interface to the entrance, but also makes the shape more intuitive. The profound eaves overhang and large area glass applications create a directionless floating roof, which presents a charming tranquility with the swaying shadows of the trees. - Dimensions & Packaging
- The interior 8 wooden columns and the 3 diagonal wooden columns at the front make the structure realize the 34.0mx14.5m indoor column-free space and the 3.7m outdoor cantilever.
The smoke-gray aluminum-magnesium plates, ultra-white tempered glass, small faceted spruce suspended ceiling and leaf-shaped exterior outline create an honest expression of microscopic stress. - Tags
- Innovative, New Experience, Polysemy, Community, Commercial, Dynamic, Architecture, Interaction
- Production Technology
- The project’s structure went through three rounds of schemes, and final scheme is dominated by wood structure and supplemented by steel structure.
The concept of three rings is adopted. The roof uses the skylight and the beam columns to realize force conversion. The cornice is made of steel structure and the rest is made of wood structure to achieve perfect radiating effect. - Design Challenge
- The project was completed in the form of wooden structure. The biggest challenge in the process of project implementation is the large span and overhang in the structure. After several rounds of structural tests, the final shape is umbrella-shaped spoke-type arched architecture scheme, which is formed by inner, middle and outer circular steel beams and 68 radial red pine beams.
- Project Duration
- The project started in July. 2019 in Tianjin Municipality, China and was completed in March 2020.
- Operation Flow
- The building does not have a clear main entrance. Three exposed diagonal wooden posts are used to define the entrance space at the front.
To enter the exhibition space from the front, visitors will enter a lower transitional space under the eaves, and then gradually move to the space under the leaf-shaped skylight, which is covered with light. We deliberately control the interference of excessive direct light through the size of the skylight, so as to ensure the soft and quiet space atmosphere inside. - Research
- At the initial design stage, the external place is not clearly defined, and the relationship between the building and the place presents a sense of spontaneous floating. Along with the design development forwarded, metaphorical polysemy emerges. Architects use the cavities of roof sheathing and inclined beams as well as the cavities of main ring beams to hide all pipelines involving water, electricity, air conditioning and so on.
- Inspiration
- The project locates next to a meandering tributary of the Yongding River. In this vast expanse of grass, the external place is not clearly defined.
The design started with the roof, architects initially tried to use symbolic architectural language to establish a connection with the historical environment. This is like a crystal clear water drop quietly dissolves into the endless winding river. However, with the gradual development of the narrative, metaphorical polysemy emerges. - Image Credits
- Photo Credits: Hu Yijie
Colors of Tianjin Zarsion Exhibition Center
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