The last work of the designers Han Wenqiang and Zhao Yang is in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and it is a spatial renovation of the facilities.
This renovation, in charge of Architecture School of CAFA, aims to give a new and more up-to-date image to the academy's facilities, which had already become obsolete for its students, and create a space for temporary exhibitions and meetings.

The general character of the intervention intends to establish an interior-exterior connection by means of the placement of mirrored steel in the walls. And also eliminate all kinds of visual distractions, the surfaces, when they do not reflect, project clarity and light thanks to the white acoustic panels, which hide inside the building's intalaciones.
 

Description of project by Architecture School of CAFA

This multi-function hall is located at the center of the architectural complex of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and has always been one of the largest single-storey indoor spaces in the academy. Before the renovation, it was a school history museum, but the original interior space was too old to be used for modern teaching. On the occasion of the academy's 100th anniversary in 2018, a series of adjustments were made inside the campus, then this architecture was transformed to a multi-function hall, which is now mainly used as an art exhibition hall for daily teaching, meanwhile, it can be a place to hold different activities, such as large meetings and performances for teachers and students.  

The transformation idea is like "space sketch"—on the basis of the existing building spatial relation, the designers used concise forms and simple materials to "paint" the indoor interface, so as to meet the requirement of making it become a ritual and flexible gathering place for teachers and students.

The renovation included the front hall, inner hall, toilet, backstage, office, etc., and the black, white and grey materials gradually changed the spatial sequence in the spaces which have different scales. The front hall was treated as a gray box, and the wall, ceiling and floor were covered with gray granites. Through the floor glass doors, the indoor and outdoor materials are naturally connected. At the end of the front hall, the three revolving doors in the axis act like screens, which separate the front hall and the inner hall, and reduce the interference of external activities to the inner hall. The rotating doors in the middle are covered with black mirror steels, reflecting the changeable natural landscape on the outside.

The designers redesigned the previous toilet area and adjusted its streamline relation to rationalize the function.

Mirror walls were added in the front hall to create a variety of visual changes while transiting from the outside to inside. 

Entering to the inner hall, the acoustic panels were integrated into a complete and pure white background. The original fixed stage was removed and replaced with an assembled mobile stage so that the entire hall could be used as a flexible display space. The designers used folding boards on some parts of the walls to make a coherent viewing space. The previous doors and windows were also hidden inside the walls. The aluminum grilled ceiling in the inner hall contains lighting, air conditioning, fire fighting and sound equipments, etc., under which some adjustable light poles with intelligent control were installed. The brightness and height of the artificial equipments can be adjusted according to the change of functions. When the hall is functioning as an exhibition place, the track lighting poles can be lowered to a height of 3 meters to ensure that the lighting can be freely controlled and manually adjusted according to the position of display partitions. When the hall is used for meeting and performance, the light poles can present dynamic changes and create specific atmospheres.

The backstage area is mainly used to display partitions and store movable furniture, and one part of it has been transformed to a VIP lounge whose design continues to use folding wall surfaces. All the facilities and equipments in this renovation were hidden within the complete materials to show a pure and concise spatial view. When this multi-functional place becomes a silent background, the lively and colorful school activities will be further highlighted.

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Design
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Han Wenqiang and Zhao Yang
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Design Institutions
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Architecture School of Central Academy of Fine Arts
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Location
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Central Academy of Fine Arts.- 8 Huajiadi S St, WangJing, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing Shi, China, 100096
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Dates
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Completion time.- January 2018
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Area
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1,400 sqm
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Han Wenqiang, was born in Dalian, Liaoning, China. He graduated from the Architecture School of Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, and since then he has been teaching there. Combing his teaching, he founded 2010 his office in Beijing ARCHSTUDIO.

He mainly researches contemporary architectural and interior environments based on traditional cultural backgrounds. He advocates carefully reading the particular requirements and constraints of every specific project during the design practice, constantly breakthrough and challenging limitations, and continuously deepening the whole process from concept to construction details as well as transforming the relationship between the inside and the outside, the old and the new, the artificial and the natural. He devotes to making the space to be the communication medium between people and people, people and environment, so as to create a livable life.

His major projects include Tea House in Hutong, Waterside Buddist Shrine, Organic Farm, etc. His works have won Building of The Year by Archdaily, LEAF Awards, Interior Design’s Best of Year Awards, Taiwan Interior Design Gold Award, etc. His works have been invited to participate in different exhibitions, such as Contemporary Architecture in China, Harvard, The Gwangju Design Biennale in South Korea,  10x100 - An Exhibition of 100 Architects for the 10th Anniversary of UED, etc.

Awards.-

2019 Architizer A+Awards—Jury
2018 FA Emerging Architect Award—Winner
2018, 2017 Building of the Year by Archdaily;
2017 Wood Design & Building Awards;
2017 The 8th IIDA Global Excellence Awards;
2017, 2015 Interior Design’s Best of Year Awards;
2016 LEAF Awards;
2016 A+ Awards by Architizer;
2016 The 12th Annual Hospitality Design Awards;
2016 American Architecture Prize - Architecture Renovation Silver Award;
2015 Taiwan Interior Design Award - Commercial Space Gold Award, The TID Award of Residential Space, The TID Award of Public Space;
2015 Contract magazine The 37th Annual Interior Awards - Restaurant Category and Exhibition Category;
2015 Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards - Leisure & Entertainment Space Gold Award, Food Space Gold Award and Living Space Silver Award;
2015 CIDA China Interior Design Award - Residential Award.

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Published on: March 22, 2018
Cite: "Renovation of Multi-Function Hall in CAFA by Han Wenqiang and Zhao Yang" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/renovation-multi-function-hall-cafa-han-wenqiang-and-zhao-yang> ISSN 1139-6415
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