The project is located at Langyuan Station outside the East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, formerly known as the Beijing Textile Warehouse. It was founded in the 1960s and 1970s and was an important storage location for military supplies during the planned economy era. There are over 30 red brick warehouses in the park. Against the backdrop of urban renewal and regional transformation, Langyuan has also ushered in its new identity. Under the operation of the Capital Group, this area has gradually transformed into an art, lifestyle, and fashion district.
The project site is located at a corner of the road in the central western side of the park, on the east side of a group of red brick warehouses. A fashion buyer store founded by the owner Ms. Sun, combined with operational development, is located in a newly planned and renovated park to open its own offline brand experience store.
The building is located at the corner of a crossroad. In order to balance the interaction between all parties, the building presents a soft circular volume here, with a large arched opening below. The semi sunken internal transparent space brings the perception relatimisinship between the inside and outside of the building closer. On top of the current ruins, the design maximizes the preservation of the old red brick walls around the outer perimeter, and the new structure is built from the inside,The first main goal of structural design is to reduce the number of columns, while the secondary goal is to achieve extremely rich curved boundaries on the building and interior plans and facades. Starting from spatial analysis and utilizing the advantage of building story height, a 700 high truss spatial stress system was adopted to achieve the goals of span and overhang. At the same time, a large roof truss can be used to attach hanging mezzanine layers to form a serpentine curved architectural plane, creating rich details in the architectural effect and achieving the goal of completely column free interior.
The pedestrian flow in the south and east of the building is not small. We have simply set up entrances and exits in both directions, with buildings measuring ten meters square. Due to the limited physical streamline and store space, it is easy for passersby to stroll through the store in half a minute. How to effectively attract customers and make everyone naturally comfortable to stay and even consume is a common topic similar to fashion consumption space.
Our strategy is to create a puzzle space where the space and exhibits blend together. Myth Cave is not a lost cave. A maze like and complex experience alone does not provide a pleasant spatial experience, but it has a certain guiding and not clearly defined maze space, which obtains a unique sense of experience during the exploration process. Perhaps it is possible. We hope to obtain this form of space.
A moving line passing through the building between two exits is coiled in a serpentine shape, displaying the experience of being stretched while adjusting the spatial scale of the moving line, naturally generating three different forms of characteristic exhibition rooms, two changing auxiliary spaces, and one exhibition hall, each arranged linearly. Depending on different functions and characteristics, some may rise or fall. The second floor is a more relaxed experience mode of discovering exhibits while walking. As a result, the space is folded , and the architecture and space are like a maze hole, inducing people to explore. This creates a rich mobile and resident spatial experience.
On the basis of retaining the old red brick walls on the outer periphery of the building, the old bricks on the site will be recycled for secondary masonry, such as the hyperbolic arch volume used for building the eastern corner, so that the entire volume continues to be complete. The opening of the curved arch is made of frameless tempered glass with adhesive. Correspondingly, we selected a metal corrugated perforated plate with an aperture of 8mm indoors for space segmentation, By utilizing the structural characteristics of the material, the 6-meter long entire board can be suspended from the main roof structure. The metal corrugated board, which serves as the wall, has been bent to achieve structural rigidity without the need for any vertical auxiliary keels. The perforated corrugated metal plate becomes a part of the exhibition space. Under its pure relationship between virtual and real, it presents a semi transparent overall ambiguity.
Finally, combined with the functionality, a series of holes of varying sizes are cut, the line of sight and movement is opened, and the fuzziness of the interior space surface has a hint of certainty.
In terms of perception, this designed cross and staggered line of sight interaction, where holes are nested within each other, and in space, they are in a bottom-up relationship with each other. Presents a space that is both loose and dense.
In the Langyuan Buyers’ Store project, our thinking on the mutual transformation between concrete and abstract elements continues. How can we create an abstract authenticity? Create a dynamic stay and maximize the experience of exploring the store, while maximizing the acquisition of an abstract space while still returning to form and order. This is the thinking point of this project. This is an abstract experiment that uses simplicity to create richness.
The ultimate spatial experience, the rhythm of the walls and ground, the intimate and gentle tone of sunlight, the dual sense of order and freedom, the place is open but not claustrophobic, friendly, touching, but not oppressive. In the commercial stores of Langyuan, the spatial atmosphere here is suitable for traveling alone or with a few friends. The pursuit of simplicity and simplicity in the space may be used to resist the refinement, novelty, and concretization of contemporary consumer space. We also expect this confrontation to transform into a new spatial relationship, which in turn will generate new forms of consumption space.
