Guangzhou Julong Bay 展览中心 by Ann Yu is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award 银奖 in 室内空间与展览设计 Competition Category.

银室内· 2023

Guangzhou Julong Bay 展览中心

by Ann Yu

Client: Guangzhou Pearl River Enterprises Group

A' Design Award 银奖 Winner in 室内 Category

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The Design

About Guangzhou Julong Bay 展览中心

广州聚龙湾展览中心由珠江西岸四座建于20世纪50年代的砖砌仓库改造而成。原粮仓建筑保留了初始结构与材料,新增部分则以定制手工黏土砖砌筑完成。大跨度钢结构与倾斜玻璃幕墙在平行排列的仓库之上构成一处顶棚,将其连为一体,形成5000平方米的灵活室内空间。钢结构向两侧延伸落地,形成向滨江景观与既有树木敞开的廊道。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 银奖

Guangzhou Julong Bay 展览中心是 A' Design Award 银奖得主，这是授予顶级、华美而令人印象深刻的设计的极为崇高的认可。银奖得主是极其卓越、极具创造力的作品，展现出其设计师杰出的专业技能、才华与敏锐。预计Guangzhou Julong Bay 展览中心将成为一件出色的典范之作，兼具非凡的专业性与深刻的创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 银奖的设计是一项备受瞩目、令人钦佩的发明，造福并拓展艺术、科学、设计和技术的边界。Guangzhou Julong Bay 展览中心是一件令人羡慕的创作，它唤起渴望，带来积极的情感，并激发惊叹与赞叹。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: Located on the west bank of the Pearl River, the original site with four separated brick warehouses built in the 1950s was a significant granary of Guangzhou. As the first stage of the city government’s renewal master plan in the area, the key objectives of the adaptive reuse project were to remain its industrial past as a reminder of history, while building a city-planning exhibition hall and civic center that act as a beacon to investors, developers, and citizens, to encourage massive participation in the rebirth of the old district. The core design idea was to ensure its new functional usability while presenting the old site in an attractive way to the young generation. The project has been rated a high score in the SITES Sustainable System, as the first to achieve that in China.
Dimensions & Packaging: Area：5000 meter square
Tags: Oldbuildings, conservation, revitalisation, reuse, Revitalization of old buildings, Reborn, Exhibition Center, Handmade Bricks
Production Technology: large-span steel frame and full-slope glass curtain wall system； handmade bricks
Design Challenge: For practicing designers, there is not much room for practice due to the overwhelming historical meaning of the architectural conservation field, which is too complicated to regulate. Instead, there are a lot of possibilities in the field of conservation revitalization of old buildings on how to renovate. The numerous protective revitalization approach is either an allusion to or an extension of the different repair theories in the right proportion.

Take the example of Chong Kou Warehouse. Transformed from a 19th-century grain warehouse into a commercial urban exhibition center, the original building group has a very simple layout. Three groups of 13m x 45m square pods of uniform length and width in proportion to their structure are lined up along the short side at 10m intervals. The physical spaces of the building have a good and balanced ratio of area to open void spaces. The warehouse, on the other hand, has an interior usable area of 1,755 square meters, which in fact cannot take on the full function of an urban exhibition center. Therefore expansion became necessary. On the basis of the structural characteristics of the original building, a vertical extension would be extremely costly and irreversibly damage the sloping roof of the original building. Thus flat expansion became the first choice. The open void space of the original site is incorporated into the new space and organized into a non-thematic visiting/reception/resting space, which is incorporated into the main exhibition and meeting content that the original three-story interior can take on, a good functional and logical organization of space can be achieved within the limited scope of the renovation. The four silos are placed horizontally and independently of the main building due to budget reasons. Because of its proximity to the original three warehouses, we have designed a connecting corridor into a reception space that is visually strongly connected to the main building but functionally independent.
Research: The original site of this project is four separated brick granaries that were built in the 1950s. As the first stage of the renewal plan in the area, the key objectives of the adaptive reuse project were to remain its industrial past as a reminder of its history, while building a city-planning exhibition hall and civic center. To encourage massive participation in the rebirth of the old district, the original structure and materials of the warehouses were reserved as far as possible, while customized imitated clay bricks are adopted in the new-built part. The core design idea was to ensure its new functional usability while presenting the old site in an attractive way to the young generation.
Inspiration: The Chongkou warehouse is a group of old warehouses on the river bank, which retains its identity as an old building and avoids being classified as a historical and cultural preservation building and thus has a new fate. It is also possible to completely avoid the "something if nothing, a reality if nothing, great wisdom if foolishness". This is indeed the luck of its destiny. And it is even more fortunate that we, as designers, have been given this honored opportunity to renovate this group of nearly century-old buildings and bestow them a contemporary significance.
Project Duration: The project started in February 2021 in Guangzhou China and finished in February 2022 ,and exhibited in Guangzhou China in May 2022.
Operation Flow: The old warehouses were built for plain purpose with a simple brick structure. The original structure and materials of the warehouses were reserved as far as possible, while customized imitated clay bricks are adopted in the new-built part.

In order to create a connected inner space for a new massive building, a canopy of glass and steel structure was designed to build on the parallel barns, which enabled the interior to be rearranged flexibly usage. Its triangle appearance inherits the inclined angle of the sloping ceilings of the old warehouses, and at the same time gives a steady yet energetic characteristic. Modern steel structure and glass, together with traditional bricks, worked harmoniously.

The steel structure of the canopy extended on both sides to the ground, which formed a corridor that brought in the riverside landscape, and a coexistence with the original plants on the site. It also created an interaction between the building and the natural environment, which helped to build a friendly and cozy ambiance for the interior.