Description

Site: Songzhuang, Beijing
Time: 2011
Status: Completed
Size: 2,000 sqm
Project Architect: Di Shaohua
Team: Zhang Xiaodong, Di Xiangjie

The original office building was constructed in 1995 in brick masonry structure. The physical expression was one representative of the political avocations on inheriting tradition in architecture, as many major buildings in Beijing were built in the same style at the time.

Besides adding one floor on the main body of the volume, the existing structure does not allow much further change on the building profile. While the south elevation was intentionally kept plain and solemn as entry to government offices, the east elevation obtained a relatively dynamic character from contrast between materials and in and out of volumes, which are necessary as being part of the commercial street.

A single tiling material was applied to the whole exterior facades to achieve unity out of an assembly of blocks of different sizes. Tiling pattern, however, is one with variation, in recalling memory for patches of farm land the village once lived upon.