A-VOID RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN DASHILAR BEIJING BY REMIX STUDIO / INSTALLATION AT THE BEIJING DESIGN WEEK 2014

A-void is one of the pilot projects for the urban renovation of Dashilar, an area located in the historical city centre of Beijing, a few hundred meters South of Tiananmen Square. As a unique case in China, Dashilar is undergoing a slow process of urban redevelopment based on punctual architectural interventions that should eventually revitalize the whole neighbourhood.
The site consists of a series of disconnected volumes on multiple levels arranged around two little courtyards, shared by different tenants. The project started as a small installation for the 2013 Beijing Design Week in one of the uninhabited rooms of the ground floor, exhibiting our concept for a potential residential redevelopment.
Given the heavy fragmentation of the properties and the serious structural pathologies of some buildings, we believe that only operating on the whole courtyard, we can intervene effectively: in this way the renovation would have a much stronger impact that could benefit both the current and the future tenants. At the moment, though, while a negotiation with the local residents is still ongoing, we are forced to focus only on the vacant volumes, as a first phase of a larger redevelopment.
The design aims to solve the vertical communication between the two main interior levels and the roof terraces as well as improving the critical illumination and ventilation of the ground floor.
The construction of staircases that work as light-wells creates new vertical cores that help organize the whole internal program. A series of mezzanines maximizes the internal floor area while creating interesting visual connections; at the same time, small terraces and overhanging volumes extend the rooms outwards producing a new interface between interior and exterior spaces.

THE INSTALLATION

As a result of the difficult and time consuming negotiation with the neighbours, the implementation of the project was consistently delayed so the fully renovated residential unit that was supposed to be exhibited in the 2014 Beijing Design Week resulted in an empty skeleton awaiting construction. In such conditions we decided to virtually reconstruct the future configuration of the building through a light installation of wireframe volumes. The different levels and the staircases that spiral around the main double-height space are rendered through the use of white rubber bands that glow in the semi-darkness of the room, only lit up by hidden UV lights.
In the background one can still see the textures of the existing walls, eroded by time and humidity, creating an interesting dialogue between the past and the future of the building.
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