The predecessor of this project is five factory buildings built in 1960s and 1990s. The building is located in the core of the total park, and the transformed function is the public design art center. The main purpose is exhibition hall, which is used to hold all kinds of art and design exhibitions.
Wuhan Liangyou Red Town Art Design Center(ADC)
Design company: UAO design
Project Creator: Li Tao
Design Team: Hu Bingsheng, Kong Fanyi, li long, Zhang Jieming, long Kecheng, Yan Luodi, Wang Qianhui
Text: Li Tao English :Wei Feng
Project completion date: May 2019
Address: No.32, Hanhuang Road, Wuhan, Hubei Province
Total building area: 4891sqm.
The original building is a series of five sloping roof buildings, three of which were built in the 1960s, with the original function of warehouse; the structural form is brick concrete structure, wood truss, red tile roof, and the height of roof ridge is 7 meters; in the 1990s, the building group was transformed into a building materials market, and in the middle open space of the three buildings, two additional plants were built, and the new brick columns were pasted with the pillars of the old warehouse, with the roof Steel truss structure, asbestos tile roof, ridge height of 9 meters. The height difference between adjacent buildings is the skylight of new buildings.
The distance between the horizontal axis columns of the original building is 4m, and the distance between the vertical axis columns is 16m; when the internal horizontal partition wall of the building is removed, from the horizontal axis, there are columns in the space, and the space is crowded, but from the vertical axis, there is an open space, with a panoramic view. The sense of space is very similar to the Great Mosque in Cordoba, Spain. There are many columns. One direction has a smaller column spacing, but the other direction has a larger space.
The facade of the building is set in the direction of the North horizontal axis, and the main entrance needs to enter from the square on the north side.
The square landscape is also designed by UAO. In order to cooperate with the flower and grass Pavilion designed by the Atelier Deshaus on the square, UAO cut the original concrete pavement of the park square where trucks are parked, cut out irregular gaps, and planted turf in the gaps. It not only echoes the irregular block surface of the flower and grass Pavilion support structure, but also retains the traces of the plant history.
The location of the Flower Pavilion is located on the central axis of the original building, and the entrance of the new ADC art design center building should be from the square of the Flower Pavilion, so the entrance must be from a narrow horizontal axis column spacing; the solution of UAO is to cut an optical axis in the middle of the five row buildings: open the middle two to three span (8-12m) roof, remove the tile roof, and retain the wood truss（ Or steel truss). After the roof is opened, the light enters into the interior of the building, forming a sequence space naturally; this sequence space is set as the central axis art Avenue similar to Raphael’s famous painting “Athens College”, which is the main traffic space, connecting the exhibition halls on both sides, forming a classic Exhibition Building “fish bone” like plane layout.
The exhibition hall partition walls on both sides of the central axis are made of red bricks. The partial roof of the central axis is opened to form an open atrium; while the steel or wood truss structure at the top is reserved, and the light and shadow of the truss will be projected on the walls on both sides of the main axis during the day.
The design principle of the main entrance of the building is to emphasize contrast and juxtaposition: the main entrance forms a high-rise shape with steel structure; its oblique roof shape comes from the first letter a of art. This idea comes from the thought of Li Tao, the chief designer.the first idea is a more ancient symmetrical shape, which later evolved into a square shape. I think it’s too formal, so I change it to a hypotenuse and a The combination of right angles finally forms a word. The word “a” and the window shapes D and C of the facade form the acronym of “art design center”. The design directly expresses the meaning of the building name ADC with pop’s method; although simple, it is direct and effective.
The “A” is a newly implanted structural form, which forms a strong age and material contrast with the original retained roof and wall. The glass skylight at the top of “A” makes the black high-rise space not seem oppressive
As the vestibule of the whole building, the interior space under the A-line is darker, and the follow-up space of the central axis is brighter due to the removal of the roof, which also attracts the visitors to explore forward.
The exterior walls of the building and the partial interior walls of the exhibition hall retain the decoration traces of various ages without any treatment. There is no ceiling in the exhibition hall, showing the truss structure. Create a new white wall for display and painting, and set it at a uniform horizontal height.
In the two exhibition halls, UAO used the characteristics of truss structure to hang two light steel boxes with steel cables, covered with Transparent plate, one is white, the other is red; the Transparent plate are light and translucent. The bottom of the box is suspended like floating in the exhibition hall; it not only separates the space, but also does not appear too blocked, thus affecting the overall and liquidity of the space. This sense of suspension reflects the lightness of the installation, which also forms a contrast with the historical sense of the original building.
From the weight sense of the “A” steel structure at the entrance, to the nature after the central axis roof is lifted, and finally to the light sense of the suspended box in the exhibition hall; the light also changes from dark to light, and then to the semi artificial light adapted to the exhibition hall. This is a kind of perception sequence that the designer deliberately creates.
The function of the exhibition hall is set to hold various activities, as high as 9m exhibition hall, in addition to conventional art and sculpture exhibitions; it has also been used by UAO to hold ” China – Netherland`s Urban Revolution Camp” and “Urban Revolution Practice Exhibition and Forum” held by clients, which is in line with the positioning of ADC (art design center) of the building, just as Li Tao, the designer, designed it at the beginning The three letters of the facade are equally striking and clear.
UAO Design
UAO based in WuHan China was founded in 2005 by National First-class Registered architects Li Tao and Liang Haiyu.
UAO wants to express the meaning: Urban-Architecture Original, the interest of design is to get rid of the single architect’s thinking, promote the original spirit of integration of planning, architecture, landscape and interior, and put forward the research theme of three-phase combination of “Big Landscape + Mini Architecture + Integrated Design”.
Big landscape refers to the landscape or planning design of Park landscape, waterfront landscape, cultural park, commercial office, tourist town, resort hotel; all of them are projects with landscape as the main area.
Micro-architecture refers to small-scale landscape architecture, such as art center, tourist center, sales department, kindergarten, boutique hotel, residential quarters, container building, etc., which is different from those developed in large quantities.
Integration refers to customized architecture, starting from task planning and site planning, UAO brings out the comprehensive solution design scheme of architecture, interior and landscape together, which brings about the consistent expression of interior space and higher degree of completion.
UAO has devoted all its efforts to the design of large landscape and small buildings, outdoor landscape and interior, and strived to express the complete original ideas.
Li Tao
Li Tao, 22 years of design experience, National First-class Registered architect, secretary-general of Wuhan Landscape Design Industry Association. Since September 2014, he has taught part-time architectural design courses in Wuhan University.
Liang Haiyu, co-founder, has 22 years experience in design, national first-class registered architect.
UAO currently has nearly 40 designers, covering planning, architecture, landscape, plant, structure, interior and other professions.
Awards, Publications and Exhibitions
2015, founder Li Tao was selected as the editor of the book “What Are Architects Doing”. Interview with 78 contemporary architects, Tongji University Press.
2016, three works “Metasequoia Wood Cabins”, “Bricks House” and “Mini Outlets” were selected into “China Architectural Design Yearbook” – Liaoning Science and Technology Publishing House.
2017, The column of designer of Phoenix Satellite TV reports two projects: “Bricks House ” and “The Circle Toilet “.
2017, “Cherry Blossom Garden” was published in the July 2017 issue of Landscape Design Magazine.
2017, “Qingshan River Beach” won the world C40 “City’s Future” Award.
2018, “The Circle Toilet ” was selected as Beijing’s “Design POWER 100 China Design Power List”.
2018，UAO Recent Works Exhibition “Poetics of Nature and Space” Exhibition in Wuhan Liberation Park Art Museum.
2018，”The Circle Toilet ” was exhibited at the Third China Design Exhibition and Public Art Exhibition in Shenzhen.
2018，”The Circle Toilet” was selected as the book “Toilet Revolution” – Guangxi Normal University Press.
2019，”Dou Shan Yi Culture Reception Hall” won the 9th International Space Design Award “IDEA-Tops Award” Best Public Architectural Design Nomination Award.
2019，Best Popular Award “A Winter House For Alley Cats” Wandering Cat House Design Competition.
2019, UAO planned and held the “Practical Exhibition of Urban Evolution Design” in Wuhan Liangyou Hongfang International Art Season.
2019, UAO and NOAHH Design Company of the Netherlands held the “China-Netherlands Urban Evolution Workshop Camp” and the Summit Forum in Wuhan.
2019 ,Li Tao give a presentation which the topic is “evolutionary” in B.k. of TU.Delft. Netherland.
