Ziin exhibition house

Formerly known as Beijing textile warehouse, a factory with red-brick walls and pitch roof built in the 1960s has been transformed into a new showroom for a young domestic furniture brand, ZIIN. The architect sought to balance the relation between existing site with the new function, exhibition and sale, background and objects by placing two intersecting square frameworks, which were rotated 45 degrees to detached from the original four walls, and formed independent nested buildings in a building. The original site is a nearly square warehouse with a dimension of 15 meters in length and 12 meters in width. We first applied two sets of overlapping grids with circular columns inside -- each set consists of 9 columns with 3.5 meters spacing defines a 7 meters wide square two-story framework; With columns as the clues, marked 4 square units. The crystal-like structure formed by the interlacing of two identical columns also forms a continuous sequence of rooms. Each unit becomes a universal and homogeneous space, which is permeable and interlinked to each other, introducing the possibility of flexible activities. In terms of vertical direction, from the clearly visible steel framework, the wooden column framework in construction layer of the auxiliary wall, to the installation surface layers, every component is visible, and the structure is the accomplished dimension. In the structure of the horizontal floor and dropped ceiling, from profile steel sheet used on the ground floor to I steel beams, ducts and wirings and dropped ceiling, the practice of implementing layering method is exposed as soil layering. Each node is described, components are exposed, the attribution of components is clearly identifiable. Surface materials such as corrugated polycarbonate panels, wood-cement board, timber and stone pieces also honestly reveal their thin sheet cross sections as overlaid materials. The combination of components becomes an individual whole, meanwhile, separates from each other presenting their independence and relevance. The accomplished framework demonstrates design process，construction and assembling process as well, narrating how the structure has been constructed. The whole project adopts commonly used products which are familiar industrially produced materials. Bar sections, structural materials, wood, stone and red brick cement make no distinctions in this project. By recombining ordinary everyday materials and placing them on one facade, a warm, comfortable and fun scene is established. Similar to ZIIN's original intention of "affordable good design", this is an effective cost control project that uses basic formal logic, direct everyday materials and construction techniques to translate into a deep expression of space and detail.