Architects: Studio Pei-Zhu
5 Jun 2008
Existing building:
Publishing MicroCity is a project to transform an existing 12 storey office
block occupied by the Beijing Publishing Corporation into a centre promoting
creativity within the publishing industry. It also aims to increase public
interest in publishing. The site has a prominent corner location on Beijing’s
busy north third ring road, on the north-south axis running between the
Forbidden City in the centre and the Olympic Park in the North.
The publishing industry in China has a long history - movable type printing
was invented around 1000 years ago, some 400 years before Gutenberg produced
his bible in Europe. The contemporary industry is changing rapidly however.
As is the case all over the world technological advances have impacted
heavily, with the rise of television and the internet diminishing the
role of printed media. Societal transformations related to China’s
economic reforms are also affecting publishing. As the economy booms and
the middle classes expand, increased leisure time, affluence and education
means an increased value placed upon the media in all its forms, and it
has assumed a more ubiquitous presence throughout the city, both in peoples
homes and on the streets. The publishing industry must adapt swiftly to
this paradigm shift in order to survive, and it is here in the interactions
taking place in the real and virtual spaces of the city that the creative
impetus for new directions in publishing can be found.
Working from this premise the project seeks to create a microcosm of the
surrounding urban fabric within one building – a MicroCity focused
on publishing. The existing homogenous, compartmentalised office building
will be transformed into a heterogeneous mix of linked spaces for work,
learning, retail and leisure. Public and communal space is introduced
into a previously closed building, vertical paths of communication between
floors opened up, and outdoor spaces connecting the occupants with the
city created.
In order to achieve this a series of cantilevers of varying size are constructed,
extending the existing floors. Concentrated on the north and west aspects
these allow links to be formed between floors with only minimal modification
of the existing reinforced concrete structure, and also create external
terraces. Circulation and communal areas are located in these newly created
spaces, which rise from the ground floor to the roof, forming a giant
window onto the life and movement within the building visible from the
congested 6-lane ring road. This strategy of building as visual media
can also be seen in the dramatic form of the building, which echo’s
that of the stacks of books to be found clogging up the corridors in the
existing building, and in the proposed use of patterning in the interiors
or facade.
It is hoped that the opportunities for interaction found in the intersections
between the spaces and activities contained within the building, and the
connections (at once visual, physical and programmatic) made with the
city beyond, will foster a creative and vibrant atmosphere which stimulates
life not only within the building itself, but also in the urban fabric
that surrounds it.
Project title: Publishing House
Program: A centre promoting creativity and increase public interest in
publishing
Client: Beijing Publishing Group
Location: Beijing
Architects: Pei Zhu, Tong Wu
Associates in charge: Mark Broom, Shaohua Li
Design team: Lu Wei, Frisly Colop-Morales, Jiao Chongxia, He Fan, Dai
Lili, Xi Weidong, Yang Chao
Structural consultant: Xu Minsheng
Design: 2006–07
Construction: 2007-08
Structure and materials: Reinforced concrete frame
Total building area: 10980
Cost Approximately: 18,000,000 RMB
Publishing MicroCity Beijing - images / text from Studio Pei-Zhu 050608
Beijing Convention
Centre
Central Chinese Television
Tower
Studio Pei-Zhu
Beijing Architecture
Photos
Beijing Buildings
Television Cultural Center
Beijing
Chinese Architecture
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Beijing Publishing House
- page : adrian welch / isabelle lomholt