Community Center of Ningbo Jinmao Residence

Concepts The grass slope strips extend out into a spinning pattern that naturally coordinates with its surroundings, allowing the building and environment to be closely integrated. At the same time, the building as a whole creates a dynamic visual effect, namely, like there are stars in the sky that never stop moving and rotating. The entrance trail is made of curved landscape wall and dark grilles, covered with folded aluminum roof on which irregular holes are scattered to allow the penetration of natural lights to create a daytime "starry night" scene. Then comes the “Time Travel Aisle”, 3.6 metres wide and 22 metres long, with a semi-open space and almost same hues, which creates amazing effects of changing lights and shadows. The building's inner water courtyard has no elaborate design, it just leaves more space for nature. The designer uses the simple and smooth sloping curved canopy to divide and organically connect the space between the sky and the water, this is the traditional oriental geographical philosophy of the universe, interpreted literally as "the heaven is round and earth flat". The large floor-to-ceiling frameless glass curtain walls are designed to provide a 360° view of the inner water courtyard. Pure and transparent, the indoor and outdoor spaces are permeable to each other, where people and nature can meet and communicate with comfort and ease. Light and shadow The open-air rooftop provides all-day natural light to the inner courtyard. At night, the curved roof seems to be floating in the air under the artificial lighting, and the soft light and shadow reflected by the glass curtain wall converges above the water like scattered shining stars. This environment with uneven light and shadow amplifies the fluidity and abstractness of the space and naturally dissolves the volume of the building, and eventually creates an unforgettable spatial experience. The backyard garden is an open lawn, with no high-rise buildings nearby, which makes up for the shortage of landscape resources around the site. The aluminum shelter and extremely permeable glass façade also introduce natural light and highlight the permeability and openness of the space. The designer, therefore, aims to create a living backyard scene where people and nature exist harmoniously. Difficult and Solution To achieve a better experience under the condition of limited budget, the designer has adopted the “landscape architecture” strategy, which means the buildings will be integrated to the landscaped ground to create an environment close to nature, where the main building is encircled by the grass slope. This saves the cost of façade designing. And the flying saucer in a small volume also attracts the public to explore inside. With many trials of different dimension, proportion and relationship between the inner courtyard the whole building, in the context of the interior functional layout and exterior space dimensions, the control of floor area and cost should be carefully considered. Besides the beauty of geometrical balance should also be taken into account.