Xizhimen Port 公寓大廈 by Zhe Wang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award 銀獎 in 建築、樓宇及結構設計 Competition Category.

銀建築· 2022

Xizhimen Port 公寓大廈

by Zhe Wang

Client: Beijing Sza Architectural Design Consultant

A' Design Award 銀獎 Winner in 建築 Category

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Verified Award Winner

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View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Xizhimen Port 公寓大廈

西直門港係位於中國北京嘅一座公寓大廈。呢座十層高嘅建築喺一九八〇年代興建，之後再翻新畀年輕都市租客居住。全新嘅外牆由一啲從外牆凸出嚟嘅鋁製窗框組成。呢啲窗框將原有建築外露嘅樑同柱整合起嚟，仲為每個房間嘅冷氣機提供咗擺放空間。每個窗框內部嘅顏色由頂部嘅橙色漸變到底部嘅淺黃色。喺東西兩面牆加設嘅窗戶，令採光度提升咗百分之五十。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 銀獎

Xizhimen Port 公寓大廈是 A' Design Award 銀獎得主，這是授予頂級、華美而令人印象深刻的設計的極為崇高的認可。銀獎得主是極其卓越、極具創造力的作品，展現出其設計師傑出的專業技能、才華與敏銳。預計Xizhimen Port 公寓大廈將成為一件出色的典範之作，兼具非凡的專業性與深刻的創新性。這件贏得 A' Design Award 銀獎的設計是一項備受矚目、令人欽佩的發明，造福並拓展藝術、科學、設計和技術的界限。Xizhimen Port 公寓大廈是一件令人羨慕的創作，它喚起渴望，帶來積極的情感，並激發驚嘆與讚嘆。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: One's residence and clothing represent a person's temperament. Apartments designed to inspire innovative young people naturally need a vibrant, attractive facade. The design organizes the variously spaced exposed beams and columns on the original facade while providing the housing for each room’s AC unit. The new facade was designed as a series of aluminum window frames projecting out from the exterior wall. The scale of the window frames increases at the building corner as if the entire building were twisting on the square as a vivid urban sculpture.
Dimensions & Packaging: Floors: 10-story
Site Area: 2872sqm
Total Area:11000sqm
Tags: Architecture renovation, Facade design, Residential, Apartment
Production Technology: The architect made different adjustments to each floor. By adding windows on the east and west side wall at typical floors, a more active urban facade is presented, at the same time, daylighting for each floor is increased by 50%. It provides flexible and private spaces for young tenants within a limited building area. The core of the room unit layout at how to provide customers with a safe and comfortable room space under the premise of limited space.
Design Challenge: The development of the Xizhimen Port Apartments was driven by the challenge of balancing the existing structural conditions of the 10-story building constructed in the 1980s with bold architectural expression, current building technologies, and efficient design. The original building has a large number of reinforced beams and columns exposed on the facade with variant spacing; also the renovated facade needs to find space for the AC unit of each room. So the architect designed an aluminum window frame projecting out from the exterior wall. The abundant aluminum window covers are like a horizontal combination of "Pandora's Boxes", using rhythmic changes to meet the objective functional requirements of the building.
Research: This building carries many common memories of the "same song" KTV, which is also one of its old identities. The outdated image, depressed tonality, and precipitated vicissitudes of this existing building are no longer in line with these young people who are trying to be innovative in the new era. Upgrading the appearance of the old buildings, reshaping the image of the city, stimulating the vitality of the community, and also providing urban young people with a warm home with a story and a dream, become a new topic faced by this project.
Inspiration: As a trendy apartment for innovative young people, its appearance needs to jump out of the surrounding old community environment, but can not affect the harmonious coexistence. Inspired by the scenery of the lunar eclipse, the facade is designed with bright colors which bring rich expression. The inside of the window sleeve changes from orange at the top to pale yellow at the bottom, like the color spectrum of the lunar eclipse, and also celebrating Beijing's golden autumn while the Port Apartment opens in October.
Project Duration: This project completed in Oct. 2018 in Beijing, China.
Operation Flow: The vibrant facade of the apartment was designed to inspire its residents of innovative young people as a new model for urban renewal and architectural renovation. With the development of the city to a certain stage, renewal design is bound to gradually become the main trend of urban development. Xizhimen Port Apartment is an exploration, hoping to gradually practice another way of urban renewal in addition to the point type experimental project and the surface type "large-scale demolition and construction".
Team Members: Wang Zhe
Shi Wei
Wen Zewei
Wang Meilin
Zhang Yan
Han Qi
Hong Wei
Image Credits: Photography: Jin Weiqi