Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2023
Dalian 37 Xiang Cultural and Creative Park
- A' Design Award 2023 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2023
- CLIENT: United Units Architects
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 37,601
- Verification code 84A64DE8E0 · Verify this award
About Dalian 37 Xiang Cultural and Creative Park
Transformed from an abandoned factory, Dalian 37 Xiang is located halfway up the mountain side with a main aspect towards the harbor in the north of the city. The design is inspired by the geographical features of Dalian's iconic mountains and adjacent seas, creating a new architectural image that echoes the spirit of the city, establishing a contrast between the old and the new through light interventions. The design objective was to renew this old factory into a regional landmark of the city, accommodate multiple business types, and finally make it an open and dynamic city node.
Situated within the discourse of contemporary adaptive architectural practice, this photograph documents United Units Architects (UUA)'s achievement in transforming industrial heritage into a vibrant cultural destination, where the interplay of perforated metal screening and dynamic sculptural elements suggests a sophisticated meditation on transparency, memory, and renewal. The architects appear to engage deeply with the phenomenology of the building envelope, employing perforated aluminum panels that function simultaneously as solar mediators, privacy screens, and luminous surfaces that transform the structure into a glowing beacon at twilight. The sweeping vertical fins that crown the composition evoke nautical imagery appropriate to the maritime context, their graceful profiles suggesting sails catching wind or perhaps the fluid calligraphy of traditional brush painting translated into architectural form. Technical accomplishment manifests in the precise calibration of perforation patterns that modulate views and light transmission, creating a breathing membrane that softens the boundary between interior creative workspaces and the surrounding urban fabric. The warm amber illumination emanating through the screens at dusk invites consideration of the building as inhabited lantern, a beacon of cultural production that announces its civic presence through gentle luminosity rather than aggressive monumentality. One might observe how the horizontal datum lines of floor plates and screening panels establish visual order and human scale against the dramatic verticality of the fin elements, achieving dynamic equilibrium between rational organization and expressive gesture. The material palette of white-finished aluminum against stone base and glazed openings demonstrates sophisticated understanding of how industrial materials may be elevated to poetic expression through careful detailing and proportional refinement. Viewers are invited to contemplate how architecture might honor the productive legacy of industrial sites while creating spaces that nurture contemporary creative endeavor and community engagement.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Transformed from an abandoned factory, Dalian 37 Xiang is located halfway up the mountain side with a main aspect towards the harbor in the north of the city. The design is inspired by the geographical features of Dalian's iconic mountains and adjacent seas, creating a new architectural image that echoes the spirit of the city, establishing a contrast between the old and the new through delicate and light interventions. The design objective was to renew this old factory into a regional landmark of the city, accommodate multiple business types, and finally make it an open and dynamic city node.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Site Area: 4,000 m2
Gross Floor Area: 5,300 m2 - Tags
- Renovation, Urban Renewal, Urban Regeneration, Industrial Heritage, Mountains and Seas, Beacon, Mixed Uses, Roof Garden
- Production Technology
- The first step of the renovation strategy is to establish a new facade grid. The horizontal lines of the facade grid are formed according to the building levels of the floors, roof and parapet. At the same time, the vertical lines of the facade grid are spaced 1.2 meters apart, which not only conforms to the specifications of conventional building materials, but also forms a multiple relationship with the building's structural grid. Based on this facade grid, we established a new facade system superimposed on the old structural order.
- Design Challenge
- The main building of the site was originally a cuboid industrial factory building with a regular 6m x 9m structural grid, presenting a typical uninspiring example of an industrial building, an impression that is essentially contradictory to the vitality of the cultural and creative industry. So how to create a continuity before and after the renovation, whilst at the same time liberating the building from the original monotonous form to achieve a more free and romantic form, is a key point of our thinking.
- Project Duration
- The project started in December 2020 and finished in September 2022 in Dalian, China.
- Operation Flow
- Mixed business types are an important prerequisite for ensuring the vitality of the park, with each business type being suitable for a specific target customer group. Through the rational allocation and sharing of resources, different business types can guide customers to each other, creating a synergistic effect. Dalian 37 Xiang is comprised of rental offices, radio museum, coffee shop, bookshop, communal space, tea shop, fashion shop, art education, restaurant, etc., emphasizing the theme of "fusion space".
- Research
- Located in the core area of the old city area of Dalian, the site is backed by Martyrs Mountain, facing Dalian Bay to the north, adjacent to the Dalian Government. Scattered around the site is an equally decades-old neighborhood, so over time the factory has become part of the collective memory of the local residents. Therefore, the new architectural image should not only resonate emotionally with the surrounding residents, but also become a regional landmark facing the future, activating the old community in the way of acupuncture.
- Inspiration
- The emergence of the architectural image comes from the exploration of Dalian's city spirit. Combining the unique geographical resources of mountains, hills, peninsulas, oceans, together with the urban fabric have created the impression of Dalian as a city of mountains and seas. The first inspiration for the architectural design comes from the geographical features of the city. The design language is abstracted from the form of waves and sails, establishing a spiritual connection between the building and people by endowing the building with a new visual imagination.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Weiqi Jin, Night, 2022.
Image #2: Photographer Weiqi Jin, Day, 2022.
Image #3: Photographer Weiqi Jin, Terrace, 2022.
Image #4: Photographer Weiqi Jin, Sails, 2022.
Image #5: Photographer Weiqi Jin, Details, 2022.
Video Credits: Shiming Xiao + Weiqi Jin, 2022.
Colors of Dalian 37 Xiang Cultural and Creative Park
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