CSWADI's new commercial block was built with the aim of providing commercial and cultural services to citizens, while creating a connection with the People's Park. To achieve this, the park walls were demolished, creating a green neighbourhood that would integrate the commercial block with the park, promoting the development of commercial activities.
Another of the main goals of the renovation project was to preserve the historic buildings of the block. The strategies implemented in the project aim to revitalize the block through new buildings providing a new aesthetic effect, while respecting the history of the site by preserving the old buildings that have been provided with new functions.
The proposal connects and integrates three levels creating a three-dimensional green art block. The park is the central green heart constituting the first level. The second level is a commercial corridor that acts as a green belt, which connects to the green roof of one of the buildings constituting the third level.
Citang street regeneration by CSWADI. Photograph by 404NF STUDIO.
Project description by CSWADI
In the center of Chengdu, at the southern end of Shaocheng, there is a street with parks. From east to west, you will pass by the old houses with blue bricks and red walls, the Sichuan Fine Arts Society, and the former headquarters of Xinhua newspaper. The Citang Jie project is located in the triangular block formed by Shudu Avenue to the north and the People's Park to the south.
The organic renovation project of Citang Jie was started in early 2022. The design adopts an overall strategy that adapts to the renovation of the block, taking advantage of the vitality and greenery of the park, taking the art block as the highlight of the design, and creating a "three-dimensional art block."
Combination of traditional urban space
The Citang Jie is a traditional commercial block. Together with the park, it supplies citizens' demand for cultural and commercial services. The existing urban roads cut off the communication between the block and the park, and the narrow street space restricts the development of commercial activities. The design integrates the park with the green block to create a green neighborhood by expanding the space of Citang Jie and demolishing the park walls.
The design uses the historic streets of Citang Jie and Yongshun Lane as the skeleton, tidies up the regional streets and alleys, demolishes the illegal buildings that have increased over the years, restores the hutongs and alleys, and forms a neighborhood space system with an appropriate scale. The design introduces the greenery and popularity of the park into the center of the street by opening the entrance and exit in front of the park, connecting it with Shudu Avenue on the north side, so that various commercial activities can be carried out along the streets and alleys.
Connected to the park, before the renovation, Citang Jie was a two-way four-lane road, with the sidewalk width on both sides less than 3m. After communicating with the owner, the Traffic Management Bureau and other departments, Citang Jie was finally adapted to a one-way and two-lane road, and the slow-moving space on the side of the old building was widened (up to 9m), making the outdoor space of the building and the space under the plane trees more pleasant; the wall on the side of the park was demolished to open the green space to the street. The picturesque Citang Jie and the green park are connected to the maximum extent, the tall and dense plane trees extend from the park to the streets, making the center of the street a part of the park.
Restoration and revitalization of historical buildings
The design of the reconstruction and expansion of Citang Jie has always implemented the design concept of “Juci & Jinshan and Organic Renewal”. “Juci & Jinshan” is a traditional Chinese craft, it is a process of reshaping perfection through incompleteness. The lines are separated from broken porcelain, repaired with rivets or glued with natural lacquer, and applied with gold powder and gold leaf. The historic buildings in the block are like porcelain fragments that witnessed history, and the modern buildings, such as the north side building and the street space that has been revitalized. This design method not only respects history, but also provides a new aesthetic effect for the block.
The renovated old buildings have been given urban functions again: the introduction of brands that meet the modern needs of citizens has revitalized the dark cyan bricks and gray tiles that have been silent for too many years; the facades and interior spaces of the buildings have been cleaned and restored, allowing citizens and tourists to explore this unique Sichuan-Western architectural community in Chengdu.
The construction of three-dimensional neighborhoods
Due to the small land area, development is easily restricted. The scale and size of Citang Jie are much smaller than those of the nearby characteristic blocks such as Taikoo Li and Kuanzhai Xiangzi. Therefore, the design makes full use of the vertical space of the block to reinforce the sense of extension in the vertical direction. The courtyard space is an activity space much loved by people in western Sichuan. The design team arranged the old buildings and renovated commercial “boxes” around the central “Yuangba”, creating a pleasant scene for people to taste a bowl of tea in the heart of Citang Jie under the trees.
The greenery permeated by the park and the central green heart of the block together constitute the primary greenery of the block. Along the roof of the center of Citang Jie, one can climb up to the second-floor commercial corridor, and the connected commercial space is combined with the green leisure platform to form a green belt, which enriches the commercial experience in the block and constitutes the secondary greening of the block; from the second-floor commercial green belt, one can walk up to the roof of the building. The design team installed a path across the high roof, combined with the vegetation on the roof to form a green corridor, creating the third-level greening of the Citang Jie block. The design connects and integrates these three levels to create a three-dimensional green art block.
The New Voice of Citang Jie: An Art Gallery in the Neighborhood
The building located at the northwest corner of Citang Jie was rebuilt as an art gallery. The elegance of Citang Jie and the modernity of Shudu Avenue were to be taken into account. The small-scale street space, historical architectural textures with different styles, and the scope of triangular land use pose considerable challenges to the spatial design of the art gallery. While considering the conformity of the building to the urban context, the design team must also consider meeting the needs of the large exhibition hall of the art gallery and the layout of the square exhibition. The overall design draws the direction of the main axis of the historical building, divides the volume of the art gallery into 5 roof plane spaces of different sizes, and controls the width of each shape in a scale range of 8 meters to 10 meters, so that the scale of the streets and historical buildings is echoed, and the building shape design within the triangular plot can be well completed.
The design breaks the shape of the building, not only forming a harmonious roof shape, but also achieving a shape control effect combined with the indoor exhibition hall space. The five small-volume “boxes” are divided into two groups, corresponding to the entrance of the art gallery and the exhibition hall space and the exit of the art gallery and the derivatives store, which are connected by a street gallery. This design technique makes the Citang Jie side and the old building space have a sense of continuity on a human scale, meeting the needs of the urban volume on the Shudu Avenue side. The design coordinates the new form with the old architectural style through the undulating and continuous slope changes of the roof, while also making the building modern.
Historically, there was a bridge, named “Half-Side Bridge” at the intersection of Citang Jie East Street and Xiyu Street. This bridge was one of the dividing lines between the inner and outer cities of Chengdu by successive dynasties. In the late Qing Dynasty, the bridge was divided into two halves by the Shaocheng Water Barrier, with the west side of the bridge in Shaocheng and the east side in Dacheng, hence the name “Half-Side Bridge”. During the Republic of China, the Laoma Trotter Restaurant on the Half-Side Bridge was the last reminder of this bridge. Nowadays, the Shaocheng Water Barrier no longer exists and it is difficult to find the original site of the bridge. It is hoped that this art museum can continue the memory of the neighborhood and reproduce the history of the “Half-Side Bridge”.
The facade of the art museum adopts a combination of ceramic panels and hollow ceramic tiles, which not only distinguishes the new buildings from the old ones, but also echoes traditional materials such as blue bricks. The design adopts a ceramic tile size of 480x120x90mm, which is exactly twice the size of the blue bricks. This scale is based on the size of the art museum and the hope that its delicate texture will coordinate with the mottled blue brick facade of the old building. The design uses stainless steel locks to connect the hollow brick curtain wall. Through the parametric gradient combination of four ceramic tiles with thicknesses of 22.5mm, 45mm, 67.5mm, and 90mm, the shadow of sycamore leaves projected on the blue brick wall is simulated, creating a dreamlike effect both indoors and outdoors.
The alternating use of solid ceramic panels and hollow ceramic tiles corresponds to the different spatial requirements of the interior. The intersection of the two structures is posed as a challenge for the design team. After enlisting the help of curtain wall professionals, the design team finally laid a 6mm thick stainless steel plate at the intersection of the angle bisectors of the two structural surfaces, using it as a closure for the ceramic tiles and ceramic panels, and at the same time chamfered the materials on both sides, so that the three together formed a delicate structural conversion effect.
The Conclusion
The organic renovation project of Citang Jie hopes to awaken the vitality of this ancient street and present the Tianfu culture and Chengdu memory to the public in a new way. After the completion of the first phase of the project, several 20th-century buildings will also enter the renovation stage, allowing the century-old literary and artistic history of Citang Jie to continue into the future.
