INTRODUCTION (LOCATION & SITE) The site for this new exhibition center and laboratories was the former 1962 Soviet-designed low-density office cluster sitting amongst a heavily wooded compound. The design sought to minimize the carbon footprint of new construction by retaining as much of the existing fabric, with selective demolition and reconstruction. The newly configured complex possesses a series of intimate courtyards by weaving new architecture through forty-five mature trees and existing building structures. New laboratories, offices and exhibition spaces are organized around courtyards and terraces on two to three levels, each having views and access to the natural environment.
OPERATING ON THE CARCASS (CONSTRUCTION & MATERIALS) The cluster of buildings were initially separated into two distinct blocks that had accumulated, over time, additional barnacle-like extensions that are haphazardly attached to the main body. These included additional mezzanine levels and blocks constructed out of light-weight materials, and many had independent access points, resulting in a convoluted circulation system and an accumulative structural system. In this way, the site could be read as an archaeological artifact that documents its own history – from initial growth in the 60s through the 90s, to its decline that paralleled the relocation of industry out of Shanghai to the periphery as the city entered into an economy based on skills and services.
FRAMING & MULTIPLYING NATURE (SUSTAINABILITY) This project strove for sustainability through the preservation of much of the original structure. At the same time, the existing mature camphors and pines were one of the highlights of the site, and care was taken to weave the new architecture through the dense foliage without destroying a single tree. To this end, notches were carved out of the new bridge buildings as well as the original carcass, to frame the landscape spatially and visually. Exterior terraces at the level of the tree crowns were created to allow closer relations between the end users and nature, resulting in the effect of literally “walking amongst the trees”.
The original fenestration monotonously framed views to the exterior, as was befitting of the buildings’ industrial nature. The new window organization echoes the organic rhythm of the trees, while providing the user with multiple ways of viewing nature – through grouped windows, long vertical strip windows, large framed openings, and floor-to-ceiling glazing. This multiplicity is not merely visual – the façade, through its tectonic articulation, increases the contact between building and landscape, interior and exterior. At the same time, ventilated corridors permit natural air circulation and light to enter the long spaces, literally bringing the outdoors in through a transition zone, while reducing the overall energy load of the complex.
NEW ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ENVIRONMENT (SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS) The intervention on site was a response to the new needs of the client, which included an exhibition hall, laboratories, and offices used by multiple but related departments. The original buildings were reconfigured by borrowing from the accretive logic found onsite – new bridge buildings were inserted to link up the originally disparate blocks, while simultaneously creating new courtyards within the complex. Strategic areas were also demolished to enhance natural daylighting, views, ventilation, and circulation between the spaces. The accumulative massing of the original site was evoked through the tectonic moves employed – volumetric projections and subtractions, as well as a new rhythm for the fenestration – while the complex was linked together through a unified façade treatment.
The architecture of this adaptive-reuse project is predicated on strategic insertions of new forms and voids within the structural framework of the original complex. The dialogue between the new and the old was not just an aesthetic exercise, but also one that is concerned with an enhancement of daylighting, natural ventilation, and the embodiment of new and existing landscape of mature camphor and pine trees. A double skin and a new fenestration system were developed in order to rationalize and produce new envelopes suitable for the new programs and the environment.
