Text description provided by the architects. In the early morning of winter, the ancient town is always shrouded in mist. You can vaguely see the distant mountains on the other side of the Yangtze Rive. Lizhuang, as the cultural center during the Anti-Japanese War, gathered people with lofty ideals and cultural celebrities from all over the country. As the sun rises, the mist gradually lifts and a new day full of energy begins.
The site of the project is located in Lizhuang Moonfield Area in Yibin, Sichuan Province, adjacent to the former site of the China Academy of Construction, on the bank of the Yangtze River. As the “No. 1 Ancient Town on the Yangtze River”, Lizhuang Ancient Building Complex is known as “Nine Palaces and Eighteen Temples”. In the ancient town, there are Ming Dynasty buildings, the national cultural protection unit “Spiral Hall”, the provincial cultural protection units “Huiguang Temple”, “Zhang Family Ancestral Hall”, etc. Lizhuang has an ancient town texture composed of southern Sichuan folk houses in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with irreplaceable historical imprints and a century-old culture. Therefore, the key to the design is how to deal with the relationship between new buildings and old alleys, tradition and modernity, and how to express the Anti-Japanese War culture in the form of architecture. Based on the above considerations, we try to create an architectural landscape that can integrate contemporary, local and cultural features when designing the Museum.
The design strategy formed from the excavation of the uniqueness of the site includes four aspects as following. It responds to the characteristics of the thousand-year-old street space with the strategy of “Internalization of the Ancient Town”. It responds to the characteristics of the historical value of cultural preservation in World War II with the strategy of “Flowing History”. It responds to the characteristics of the local context of the traditional residence in southern Sichuan with the strategy of “Reconstruction of the Tile Courtyard”. It responds to the tectonic logic of contemporary architecture with the strategy of “Floating Cornices”.
In order to avoid damaging the texture of the ancient town, the museum is only two floors. And by using the technique of architectural form dislocation, two small squares are opened up on the southwest and east sides of the base, weaving the fragmented street space together, making the entire site present a complete and open situation – more suitable for people to gather and interact. By internalizing the form of ancient towns, we transform traditional streets and alleys with complex graphic relationships into prototypes of museum spaces. The plane layout interprets the form of the courtyard in southern Sichuan, presenting a posture of four hands holding each other, symbolizing the convergence of multiple cultural veins. The roof of the museum not only retains the characteristic curvature of local traditional dwellings, but also incorporates elements of modern architecture.
Due to its unique geographical conditions and strong patriotic cultural atmosphere, Li Zhuang has become one of the gathering places for cultural undertakings. We hope to inherit patriotic stories from generation to generation. After sufficient communication with the exhibition unit, we adopted a continuous space of small volume to adapt to a segmented narrative style. The exhibition area is connected by an “8” shaped streamline, allowing people to enjoy the river scenery while observing the exhibition. The entrance and exit are located at the lower part of the building, while the upper part has multiple terraces with an excellent 270 ° river view. In the open exhibition area, there are four stairs that can climb onto the roof, allowing the viewing route to be extended once again. There is an open platform on the continuous roof that turns the curve surface into straight. On the roof, you can view both the courtyard and the Yangtze River in the distance.
The courtyard on the second floor, the water courtyard on the first floor, and the bamboo courtyard on the underground floor jointly create a three-dimensional courtyard structure, providing light and ventilation for the indoor space. We cut the tiles used in traditional architecture and arranged them in a certain rhythm, pouring them into prefabricated concrete exterior panels to present a curved profile. The unique precast concrete slab(with a maximum plate height of up to 7 meters) responds to the regional cultural characteristics of residential buildings in southern Sichuan. At the same time, prefabricated components continue from the outside to the inside, becoming important elements of indoor space expression.
From a distance, the detailed texture cannot be seen in detail but can be perceived. It not only highlights the solemnity of the building, but also gives it a sense of history; The tiles arranged in both directions form a texture that resembles sparkling waves, evoking associations with the Yangtze River; Upon closer inspection, it is clearly visible, and when touched, it is rough and familiar. In order to prevent structural columns from blocking the view of the Yangtze River, the second floor of the building adopts an integrated approach of architectural design and curtain wall design. Considering the structural requirements of the roof and the transparency of the facade, the design team adopted the method of densely packed structural columns. Taking the 1350mm pitch as the modulus to echo the modulus of the prefabricated components of the façade, steel columns with extremely small cross-sections (100×160) are selected as the vertical structural support, and at the same time they are used as the keel of the curtain wall. Auxiliary functions such as vertical traffic and equipment rooms are important anti-lateral force components in the middle of the building, hidden behind the transparent facade. The overall thickness of the roof is also as thin as possible – from the outside of the building, the roof appears as a “floating cornice”.
The project adopts the forward design of BIM, which improves the efficiency of professional collaboration and completes complex and non-standardized design tasks efficiently and accurately. Full-process forward design means that from the initial stage of the project, the work of all professionals is carried out in a unified BIM, including design, optimization and construction. Real-time visualized accurate three-dimensional model construction information avoids many modifications. The project only took 180 days from the excavation of the civil foundation pit to the completion of the indoor exhibition. The Lizhuang Museum is harmoniously integrated into the surrounding architectural complex composed of Sichuan-style tile-roofed dwellings. Responding to the spirit of the place in an introspective, restrained and unique way, inheriting the context of the ancient town and sharing the scenery of the Yangtze River.
