a series of hyperbolic shaped roofs tops GOA's jianli art center in china

tradition with a twist for Jianli Art Center

GOA reinterprets tradition for a new 952 sqm cultural center in Nantong, China. Named ‘Jianli Art Center’, the recently completed building is part of a masterplan to renovate the old center of Changle, a town outside Nantong. In a project developed by ZOINA Group, Changle will be renamed ‘Jianli’ after Chinese politician and entrepreneur Zhang Jian, who was born there in 1853. Jianli Art Center acts as the gateway of the old main street and the core of the whole project.

The site for Jianli Art Center is located at the east end of the main street of Old Changle, beside a 100-year-old timber building that used to serve as the Changle Town Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Considering these historic surroundings, GOA’s approach was to inherit and reinterpret elements of traditional architecture while adopting contemporary materials and design strategies.

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an art center Surrounded by a Moat

Built by the water, Jianli Art Center pays homage to a typical kind of dwelling found in the Chongming-Qidong-Haimen region, on the north bank of the estuary of the Yangtze River. GOA explains that these houses are surrounded by moats and were used in traditional farming culture. ‘A moat provides water for drinking, washing, irrigation, and firefighting while serving as the house guard,’ say the architects. ‘A small bridge in front of the house becomes the entering path. Although the sandbank landscape has changed along rural modernization, the moats around houses and the small bridges are generally preserved in local homes as a precious mark of traditions.’

In reference to the moat motif, GOA retained the surrounding water system and designed new bridges to the south and east of the art center to connect the site with spaces across the water. By respecting the scale of the existing wooden architecture and designing a sandbank landscape composed of green plants and water features, the new art center continues the traditional spatial layout, creating a dialog between itself and the local culture.

four hyperbolic shaped roof canopies

The program for Jianli Art Center is divided into four volumes that correspond to different zones: lobby, preface hall, exhibition hall, and service zone. The four volumes are topped with four hyperbolic shaped roof, which are a deconstruction of traditional roofs with a contemporary design language. Each roof canopy slopes up toward the center to create soaring exhibition spaces inside.

Regarding its construction and materials, the art center has a steel structural system with columns concealed inside the vertical bracings of the curtain walling. The roofing features a wooden veneer underside while titanium-zinc panels clad the top, echoing the traditional grey tiles of the old town buildings. Both the exterior and interior walls are characterized by white tiles, which provide a clean background for exhibitions.