Transferred from: UIA-Hope Cup International Architectural Design Competition
UIA
suddenly
general
cup
2023
The UIA-Hope Cup 2023 International Student Architectural Design Competition, chaired by Caroline Bos, co-founder and host urban planner of UNStudio, has developed the title "Born of Beauty – Designing for Mental Health in High-Density Urban Sprawl". Let's take a look at the in-depth interpretation of the third prize winning work "Back to Nature"!
UIA-HYP CUP
PART I. DESIGN DESCRIPTION
Worldwide, mental health issues account for a large proportion of various disorders and diseases. Thinking about the future of high-density urban sprawl is a question that architects have to think about. Being close to nature is a great way to heal psychologically. The team is concerned about the psychological problems of urban children and plans to establish a children's nature activity center in the city.
We deeply interpreted the theme of the competition and selected the buildings of the old radio and television park in Kunshan City for renovation. The entire site was redesigned and planned, and multiple innovative design units such as underwater tunnels, earth-covered parking lots, and wind experiment towers were inserted. Among them, the main building of radio and television has been renovated in the most important way, turning it into a nature education center, adding viewing, education and experience functions on the plane, and inserting a building re-ecological system into the section to increase the visible and perceptible natural experience for children.
▲ Overview of the effect of the children's nature activity center
UIA-HYP CUP
PART II. RESEARCH PROCESS
01
Interpretation of the theme of the competition
▲ Theme interpretation
When we first saw the theme of the competition, we immediately thought of the mental health of children in high-density cities. Nowadays, more and more children are growing up in urban environments, and the lack of nature is a major cause of mental illness in children. In the extracurricular education of teenagers, after experiencing examination-oriented education and quality education, natural education combined with the education and psychological needs of urban children is becoming a major trend in children's extracurricular education.
02
Reasons for choosing the venue
▲Site location analysis map
In the selection of venues, we paid attention to Kunshan, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou next to Shanghai, and this fast-growing "strongest county-level city" has more possibilities for urban development and transformation. We selected the buildings in the old radio and television park as the renovation object, and strive to build a contemporary children's activity center that meets the needs of urban development and function while retaining the original main office building structure.
03
Research direction & inspiration
First of all, according to the upper-level planning, the site is located in the core of the green shared leisure belt and an important part of the cultural life circle, where culture, education and nature coexist, but there is no intersection, we hope that the plan can integrate culture and nature, so that the children's activity center can become the intersection of the two.
Secondly, we start from the perspective of children's education. To study the needs of contemporary children's educational development. Nature education is closely related to wind, rain, thunder and lightning, animals and plants, so the water cycle, wind environment, plant planting, and animal rearing are the focus of children's nature education.
▲ Conceptual collage
Combined with the high-level planning and children's needs, we decided to carry out ecological transformation of the original main building and establish a children's nature activity center for children's experience, cognitive study tours, and nature education.
UIA-HYP CUP
PART III. DESIGN PROCESS
First of all, through site research, we found that there were various problems in the original site: the original site had a weak connection with the surrounding parks, and there were also waste of parking space, abandoned water space and space under the tower, and the main body of the building was too closed.
▲ Site problems and the general plan after the renovation
In response to the problems of each site, we proposed corresponding renovation strategies. From north to south, an underwater expo trail, a covered grass slope, a riparian platform, a nature education center, a wind turbine tower and a forest oasis have been renovated and set up in turn, connecting the theme of nature education.
▲Explosion of the renovation of the main building
The façade renovation of the main building is divided into three floors, the first floor is the removal of the original façade glazing, enhancing the openness and ensuring the lighting and ventilation of the indoor planting. The second layer is the introduction of an open roaming system with an external double helix ramp in the traffic transformation, which connects the exhibition flow lines, strengthens the communication and exchange between the floors, and ensures the safety of fire protection and evacuation. The third layer is the cable and hanging net that undertakes the external ramp, which can provide structural guarantee and establish an ecological green façade.
▲Floor plan of each floor of the main building
The interior of the main building is the main children's nature experience hall, and we have set up various natural functions and corresponding plane spaces for it. On the first floor is a free and open zoo area, where staggered animal living areas naturally guide children's viewing lines.
The third and fourth floors have been transformed into classrooms and offices in various small spaces. The sixth, seventh and eighth floors are set up as three-dimensional planting areas, and different planting spaces are taken to place them in different sunlight illumination positions, taking into account the growth patterns of different plants.
The ninth floor is a large-scale constructed wetland, which can be used to form a pool through rainwater collection devices on the roof, and combined with planting islands, to create a safe and interesting water play experience for children.
▲ Building re-ecological system
In order to connect the functions of the above layers, we implanted an ecosystem for the entire building in the profile:
Three systems were introduced: water circulation, air circulation, and animal and plant circulation.
The water recycling system collects rainwater, purifies it, and uses it for irrigation. On the roof of the building, a steel grid and glass roof were used to create a funnel-shaped water collection pipe to collect rainwater. The collected water is stored and filtered from the rooftop wetland for irrigation in the lower layer, and then formed a cascading space downwards and purified layer by layer under the action of water purification plants, and finally used for animal drinking water or discharged into the river after reaching the filtration standard.
The air circulation can rely on the central duct to use the chimney effect to naturally pull out the air at the bottom of the park and remove the smell of animal farming.
The animal and plant cycle is composed of animal area, three-dimensional planting area and roof forest, and the selection of native species of animals and plants, with different breeding and planting schemes, forms a natural metabolic system in a building.
▲ Three major metabolic cycles
As a result, the renovation of the main building and the site has been completed, and the overall re-ecological transformation of the building has been formed, so that the children's activity education can return to nature, play in nature, and learn in nature. In line with the name of our program, it is back to nature.
UIA-HYP CUP
PART IV. SUMMARY AND TESTIMONIALS
Liu Jiyu: This is the second time I have participated in the Hope Cup competition, and I still have a lot of gains. Compared with the last more conceptual design, this design focuses on the exploration and discussion of the building ontology. Focusing on a niche topic such as childhood nature deficit disorder, we choose to start from the topic of urban stock renewal and discuss the renovation of buildings in high-density cities. After a lot of discussion, reflection and revision, the plan finally presented a design that integrates the urban ecosystem and architecture in a high-density community, responding to the high-density site and the natural lack of mental health needs of children. Overall very happy with the design.
Zhou Yingqi: Participating in this competition was a wonderful experience, and the judges' speeches and comments made us realize that architectural design must not ignore the thinking of practical problems. I would like to thank the teachers for their patience and guidance, as well as the hard work of my teammates, who gave me an opportunity to participate in it, and their love for architecture deeply affected and influenced me. Finally, I am very grateful to the Hope Cup for giving us a platform to exchange and learn, and also let us have a deeper understanding of the charm of the profession of architect.
Team Members
Team members
Zhou Siyang
Zhou Yingqi
Luo Guifu
Liu Jiyu
Team leader's name: Zhou Siyang
Team members' names: Zhou Yingqi, Luo Guifu, Liu Jiyu
Instructors: Song Yilin, Zhang Xinnan
Written by | Zhou Siyang, Zhou Yingqi, Luo Guifu, Liu Jiyu
Edit | Hope Cup Organizing Committee,
New Media Department of Urban Environmental Design (UED).
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