The Borderless Community of Zi Ni Twelve Portals was a fiberboard factory, located in a large state-owned industrial zone in Guangzhou in the 1950s. The project is tailor made for 7 "slash youths" in the internet era as a mingled space for both public and private life covering work, workshop, habitation, news conference, exhibition, business and social gathering.
Thanks to the innate characteristics of decentralization of slash youth, the boundary and the definition of space need to be broken. As a result, almost every unit in Zi Ni Twelve Portals is equipped with various complex or mingled function spaces.
The main building was originally a three-storey electromechanical control room. Since the electromechanical and production equipment removed, the main building had been an empty shell. After the exterior non-load-bearing wall is demolished, it becomes a domino system. In this vertical space, design is not only an attempt to integrate private daily life and public activities that makes it a space container with cohesive power, but also to combine the rich introvert activities of the building with the outside street space in the community.
Such approach to space featuring inward connection and outward exhibition, on the one hand, displays the work and life of slash youth; while on the other hand, incorporates the industrial heritage site and natural scene, with each other as its backdrop, to make it an integral whole for exhibition.
Project Type: Renovation project
Design Period: 2016.1-2018.1
Construction Period: 2016.10-2018.9
GFA: 5,231 sq m
Interior, Landscape, Artwork Design: Fei Architects
All the information about how to enter the 2020 WAN Awards is here.
We are very happy to offer support so please don’t hesitate to email Georgia, WAN Awards Event Coordinator with any questions at Georgia.Baily@haymarket.com.
Last year more than 40 countries took part in the WAN Awards with strong showings from Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. And we saw some truly outstanding projects, take a look at the winners from last year here.