The scope of the International Architectural Competition for an art center, in Guangzhou, China, looks for the revitalisation and reuse of a silo in the former packaging (canning) factory complex of Redtory.
Author: Pedro Mendes
Collaboration: Tiago Marcelino Cruz
Studio Name: Pedro Mendes Arquitectos, Lda
Year: 2013
Location: Guangzhou
Photography Credits: Pedro Mendes Arquitectos, Lda
Attending the competition requirements, we concentrate on two main issues. The complexities of the identity of a creative art equipment, whth a cultural venue on one side, and a strategy for its urban settlement and exterior adjacent areas.
The architectural character of the new building is a blend of the diverse cultural, artistic scopes and the metaphoric presence of the existing structure of the silo. the city of Guangzhou and the view of the river. The established connections of architectonic character are not static, but rather dynamic. We pretend an open, flexible and mutant relation that can be shaped by the use and life of the equipmente.
Concept
The proposed buildings creates broad elevated floors, forming a roof over the acess and exterior areas, organizing program components and public areas with a priviged view over the Redtory district, the city and the river.
The proposal seeks to establish connections between a building for young designers and artists and the “revival of the silo”. We have overlapped the variations of different artistic uses, with the abstract shape and the sensations that emerge from a contrasting urban structure and the view of the river. The result is the presence of a light, transparent and delicate building, floating over the Redtory area.
The option for this strategy, seeks to reinforce the relations between the identity of the place and the program for the new cultural equipment, ensuring a continuity and balance that interacts simultaneously with the urban territory and the local community.
The result from this intense cultural and social relationship between Guangzhou and the surrounding areas of the site, is a permanent, balanced dialog between both parts. The new building becomes a new type of nature, a new urban icone contaminated by the adjacent urban structures, but also an artificial limit that imprints itself with a new silhouette on the city of Guangzhou.
