MVRDV wins the bid [Grand Canal Future Art Science and Technology Center]

MVRDV won the design competition to transform the Hangzhou oil Refinery, a former industrial area at the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, into the Grand Canal Future Art and Technology Center. MVRDV has created a dramatic "art and technology center" that interweaves office, retail and cultural experience Spaces with industrial heritage in a green environment.

MVRDV Architects was founded in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, three prominent Dutch architects from whom the firm takes its name. The team currently employs more than 250 architects, designers and urban planners worldwide.

Since its inception, MVRDV has been active in the three fields of urban planning, architectural design and landscape design. They have a unique understanding and concern for the social development trend and the living conditions of people in the city. With a wide variety of projects, the company is not confined to a certain style and form, giving people the impression of deconstructive post-modern style. With strict technical standards and futuristic design concepts, it has become one of the most active architectural firms in Europe today.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is the longest man-made canal in the world and also one of the oldest. The historical reason for the construction of the canal was mainly to strengthen the economic ties between the north and the south of China. Today, the Grand Canal is undergoing a series of transformations and reactivation, transforming from industrial infrastructure to residential services to provide a livable waterfront environment for the millions of people living along the more than 1,700 kilometers of canal.

Located at the southern end of the Grand Canal, the 18-hectare complex houses an oil refinery and is a symbol of the canal's industrial past. Today, the refinery is closed and most of the buildings that once occupied the site have been demolished, but some large factory buildings and a number of oil storage barrels remain. MVRDV teamed up with Openfabric to envision the future of the Grand Canal and demonstrate the potential of transforming industry into culture. In addition, the design is highly integrated with renewable energy, establishing the refinery as a model for the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy.

The centerpiece of the complex is an "art and technology center," whose cylindrical appearance echoes and amplifies the oil tank structure that once filled the site. The simple facade of the building hides a highly complex internal structure: the circular exhibition hall is located on the negative ground floor, and the double-height space provides greater possibilities for exhibition; Above ground is a series of irregularly stacked rectangular boxes that house artist studios, offices and supporting businesses. The boxes form a series of terraces connected by stairs and Bridges at the top, activating the public areas within the ArtTech Centre venue, which can also be used for large-scale installations, performances and events.

The facade of the Art Technology Center is an open curtain wall that allows breezes to pass through the skin and into the space, so that the room temperature fluctuates slightly depending on the external climate conditions, but at the same time acts as a heat buffer, significantly reducing the energy required to manually regulate the temperature within the box space.

The drum - shaped "Art and Technology Center" has undoubtedly become the core building in the park. As night falls, a matrix of LED lights on the exterior walls lights up the building, creating a media facade that attracts visitors and promotes the events taking place inside. In addition to LED lights, thousands of small photovoltaic points are installed on the facade to absorb sunlight and produce energy. These photovoltaic points constitute a "solar picture", using a parameterized design method, which takes into account factors such as sunlight, prevailing winds and the best view, and places higher density photovoltaic equipment in areas where it is most needed.

Other industrial relics in the refinery area have been preserved and converted into office or cultural and commercial space. Many of the structures that have been demolished will be designed and rebuilt using a modern approach: following the scale of the original structures, built in glass, with facades using the same photovoltaic points as the outer walls of the Art Technology Center. An office cluster is located in the southeast of the site. As a result, each new building surface will become an energy generator, allowing the park to operate at negative energy consumption and provide energy to the grid.

MVRDV retained some of the industrial installations within the refinery and integrated them into the landscape of the campus, where the stairs and platforms of the refinery provide panoramic views of the park. MVRDV has also developed a catalogue of functional developments for the many remaining tanks on the campus, some of which are based on the original structure; Some have been rebuilt, while others have looped trails around the site of the tanks, marking the site's industrial memory. From immersive art experiences to retail Spaces to enclosed gardens, the reuse of these structures is able to bring a continuous vitality and attraction to the park throughout the day.

This article is reprinted from official account: GA Global Architecture