Shanghai, Beijing and London-based architecture firm SpActrum has added swirls and cones that create two open platforms for a renovated pavilion in the Shangen Village, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.

Named Shangen Blossom Pavilion
, the 120-square-metre pavilion was transformed into a community space in a site adjacent to a traditional 1950’s – 60’s style village house.

Image © Di Zhu

The project is expanded with two spirals: the outer one rises from the ground to form a platform that connects to the adjacent buildings’ upper floor. This provides an elevated panorama of the village. 

The inner spiral is designed in a cone that supports the platform. It splits into two, allowing light to penetrate the rooms from the openings. 

Image © Di Zhu

Shangen Village is a renovation project in Wenzhou, dedicated to transforming the once traditionally built village into a tourism destination. 

SpActrum left the project soon after they proposed the master plan during 2017-2018. The village has been hugely cleaned up since then but has lost some of its ancient ambience. The once charming chaos has turned into the blankness of purposeful building activity. 

SpActrum team became involved again, aiming to recall and restore the power of ambiguity once felt on the site, and started to work on an empty plot by the village bridge.

Image © Di Zhu

The project is located in a strategic location, close to the village’s central bridge, and the river has the potential to be a focal point both for the view and as the community spiritual centre. 

According to the architects, the site is an ideal spot for people to gather at the heart of the village and provides a beautiful view towards the river and the magnificent Qing Dynasty houses. 

Image © Di Zhu

"Due to the small scale of the adjacent buildings, the new structure needs to harmonize with them in height and scale," the studio added. 

The team has created a flower-like cone opening towards the sky which is both a geometrical and pragmatic solution to support the proposed structure and bring “nature” into the building. 

The studio reproduces the general geometry of the building from a computer-generated shape that embodies the function and power it needs to deliver. 

Image clourteys of SpActrum

This forms a very complex geometry, but was later manually simplified into triangles and quadrangles to fit the technical capacities of construction in a village. 

While the outer volume rises from the ground creating a platform that connects to the adjacent buildings’ upper floor, this platform provides an elevated panorama of the village. On the other hand, the inner spiral creates a cone that supports the platform - which allows light to penetrate the rooms from the openings.

Image © Di Zhu

The planter walls of the cone act as a flag to attract people from a distance and showcase how living creatures can coexist with man-made structures, as this village did in the past. 

"The covered indoor space is a function room, its inner walls rendered with a traditional oyster shell clay technique to form a very bumpy surface," continued the studio. 

As the team emphasizes, "the key-note of the project is the rejection of any single identity or labelling."

Image © Di Zhu

The project combines landscape features, functional space, a communal gathering point and a sensual expression of how nature blends into the built environment.

The project dispels the existing definitions of the man-made environment. It responds to people’s behaviour and requirements within the specific site conditions. 

Image © Di Zhu

Building, landscape, shelter, pavilion, you name it. The performance of such a construction enriches people’s experience in the village; it highlights the central bridge, provides tiered seats for resting with a view, provides a shelter in a rough climate, and gradually becomes an alternative landmark, a landmark filled with people, a landmark that reconnects to nature and the built environment. 

Image © Di Zhu

The design captures possible trends through the digital design tool, and then adapts to the locality with appropriate construction techniques. 

The design team also developed a methodology to control the form’s spatial coordinates with simple faceted surfaces, and the resulting geometry was then simplified for the local construction team. By the involvement of such a team, the construction process regains the authenticity of architectural behaviour: build for demand, not for desire.

Image © Di Zhu

The design employs easily accessed local materials and develops them into a particular architectural language, just as the original village buildings did for hundreds of years. 

The generic material also ensures low construction and running costs; the heavy platform confers high sustainability on the indoor space. 

Image © Di Zhu

Plants in the cone constantly grow, adding a dimension of time to this man-made structure. It is a project that integrates completely with its surroundings, while inviting natural elements and people to celebrate its ambiguity and polysemy.

Image © Di Zhu

Image © Di Zhu

Image © Di Zhu

Image © Di Zhu

Image © Di Zhu

Image © Di Zhu

Image © Di Zhu

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Image courtesy of SpActrum

Ground floor plan

Roof plan

Section

East elevation

South elevation

North elevation

Project facts

Project Name: Shangen Blossom Pavilion


Project Location: Shangen Village, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, P.R.China

Project Type: Architecture Design & Landscape Design

Client: Zhejiang Yunjian Tourism Investment Ltd.


Project Status: Built 

Design company: SpActrum

Principle architect: Yan Pan


Design team: Yan Pan, Zhen Li,Yimeng Tang, Junyou Chen 

Design Period: 2019-2020

Completed Year: 2020 

Gross floor area: 120 sqm

Construction Drawing & Contractor: Zhejiang Yunjian 

Applied Materials: Spray Concrete, Recycled Old Bricks, Oyster Shell Rendering, Glass, Steel 

Top image © Di Zhu

All images © Di Zhu & SpActrum

All drawings © SpActrum

> via SpActrum