Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2021
Imperial Mansion Community Center
- A' Design Award 2021 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: Qiyue Architects
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 23,964
- Verification code 4D5833EBF1 · Verify this award
About Imperial Mansion Community Center
Imperial Mansion is a community center located in the city center of Yuhuan, Taizhou, China. The form of the building is derived from the surrounding coastal landscape. Clean geometric outlines and folded roof edges make the heavy structure appear light. The facade is made of large glass walls and silvery aluminum plates in various shades of gray. A series of wide entrance steps forms an open urban plaza and guides visitors to a second-floor terrace. The building serves as a display center in the first phase and as a commercial district later.
Within the continuum of twenty-first century architectural practice, WRight Communication's Imperial Mansion Community Center emerges as a distinguished meditation on civic gathering and spatial generosity, demonstrating how contemporary design might synthesize transparency, material warmth, and programmatic clarity into unified formal expression. The building appears to engage thoughtfully with traditions of modernist public architecture while introducing contextual sensitivities through its calibrated material palette and landscape integration. The dramatic cantilevered roof structure extends with remarkable confidence, its parallel louvers creating rhythmic shadow play that animates the facade throughout diurnal cycles while providing essential solar mediation for the extensive glazed surfaces below. This technical accomplishment serves simultaneously as formal gesture and environmental strategy, suggesting the designers' sophisticated understanding of how architectural elements might perform multiple roles. The curtain wall system achieves notable success in establishing visual permeability between interior program and exterior public realm, with warm illumination visible through the glass creating an inviting beacon that speaks to the building's civic function as gathering place. The ascending stair sequence introduces ceremonial procession into the architectural experience, elevating visitors both literally and experientially as they approach the primary entrance level, a strategy that recalls historical precedents in civic and religious architecture translated into contemporary formal vocabulary. Material selections demonstrate refined judgment, with warm bronze-toned columns providing essential counterpoint to the cool white and gray palette while establishing human-scaled vertical elements beneath the expansive horizontal canopy. The terraced landscape elements soften the transition between built form and ground plane, introducing organic geometry and seasonal variation into dialogue with architectural precision. Viewers might contemplate how this community center proposes a particular vision of public life, one characterized by openness, accessibility, and the gentle elevation of everyday gathering into architecturally significant experience.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The project is located in the city center of Yuhuan, Taizhou, close to the Yuhuan Grand Theater and the Yuhuan Passenger Transport Center. The area is further characterized by a complete set of living facilities, healthy traffic flow, a refreshing natural environment, and a developed transportation system. The richness of commerce and life are all gathered here. Serving as an important part of a broader urban renewal plan, this project hopes to integrate a new attitude towards the future into the current local culture.
Yuhuan is a classic example of a coastal city. The shape of the community center is derived from the surrounding beautiful landscape. The clean geometric outlines paired with the folded edges of the roof allow the heavy structure to appear light and elegant in a natural environment. The architect hopes to make up for the lack of public urban space in the city by introducing an open plan in the project. Through a series of interactive spaces, such as street-corner city squares, large areas of stairs and resting platforms, various modes of interactions with the environment are generated. - Dimensions & Packaging
- The entrance-steps separate the building from the rest of the plan, allowing the lower area to become an urban public space, providing an image of community. At the same time, the ascending steps serves as a guide, leading the people flow to the second floor. This flow further serves as a testimony to the future commercial possibilities of the area. The neat and clean steps echo the overall architectural space, creating a spectacle for all visitors to remember.
Encircling the second-story is a terrace that overlooks the entire street corner. The architect hopes to further strengthen the link between the building and the cityscape, allowing the building to resonate with its surrounding environment. Visitors can linger about and visit the rich and open exhibition. In the future, when the commerce in the area is completely developed, the terrace will be connected to the interior commercial district. This inward extension is guided by the movement of people and creates a circular open-air corridor. - Tags
- community Center, open plaza, urban living room, urban public space
- Production Technology
- The façade of the community center consists of large areas of glass walls, presenting a simple and natural sense of sophistication. At the same time, the material echoes the city landscape and prevents the community center from appearing oppressive and alienating. The color palette is dominated by various textures of gray. The combination of silvery aluminum plates and high-transmittance glass creates a surface that reflects both reality and fantasy.
Taking on the dual functions of a display center in the first phase and a commercial district in the later phase, the community center has the responsibility of being both an architecturally-inspiring space and an inclusive environment. At night, when the lights are turned on, the glass box becomes an even more magnificent sight. Here, the building plays the role of protagonist in the plan, showcasing a glimpse of what the future city holds. - Design Challenge
- The community center is positioned in the southwest corner of the plot amongst a healthy flow of people and traffic. The position also allows for a clear display of the building. Taking on the dual role as a community symbol in the early stage and a commercial district in a later stage, the primary challenges of the project are as follows:
How to make the entrance more attractive while simultaneously developing it as a landmark within the city?
How to build the community center and the interior commercial district in phases while having the two smoothly integrate in the future?
How to draw a healthy people flow into the interior commercial district in the later phase of the project? - Project Duration
- The project started in Nov. 2019 and finished in July 2020 in Tai Zhou, China
- Operation Flow
- The urban area in which the project is located is characterized by various business interfaces and a complex flow of people. The volume of the demonstration area can easily be swallowed up by the surrounding buildings, further complicating the management of people flow. Taking advantage of the street-corner square, the architect allows the building to retreat from the city hustle in an orderly fashion, forming a plaza that opens up onto the street. This provides an open space for nearby residents to rest. Through these simple human interactions, life is injected into the entire area, attracting large numbers of people to gather and socialize, forming an “urban living room.”
- Research
- The project is heavily inspired by the spirit of Carlo Scarpa, especially in the formation of the staircase, and serves as an attempt to create a landmark. Working under various limitations, the design team effectively responded to the environment and the urban culture surrounding the project, further taking into consideration the functionality of the buildings and the natural flow of people.
- Inspiration
- Inspired by the spirit of Carlo Scarpa, the architect hopes to reinterpret the cityscape instead of creating a series buildings isolated from the urban environment. Therefore, when planning the shape of the building, the lower part was transformed into a magnificent gray mass made up of a series of huge steps. This transformation opens up possibilities for commerce, making the community atmosphere more present and injecting an aura of city vitality.
- Image Credits
- IMAGE by Zeng Jianghe