Category: Renovation
Principal Architect: Meng Yan

Project General Manager: Yao Xiaowei
Project Architect: Jiang Qingzhou, Zheng Zhi, Zhang Chaoxian
Team: Rao Enchen, Huang Jiahong | Li Guanda (Landscape) | Zhao Siying, Wu Xiaopeng (Internship)

 

Nantou, where a hidden millennia-old town and a lively urban village collide and integrate, has been simultaneously written in the grand national narrative while living the trivial daily life for over 20 years. The dream to re-live certain historical fiction of “Nantou Old Town” has always been lingering over the “Nine Streets” and never dissipated.

At the junction of Zhongshan South Street and Zhongshan East Street, five residential buildings of different heights and styles are tightly clustered together. They grew wantonly over the years, preserving the old while incorporating the new. Unlike most of the buildings on South Street that were refurnished once and for all, it does not rewrite the lost history or paint over the faces of Nantou, but rather preserves the complexities, contradictions and conflicts of the existing buildings.

Trace of additions and transformations, as well as replacement of materials, has been retained in the repoussé and chasing of both the interior and exterior. Two new volumes, one rectangular and one curvilinear, one solid and one void, are juxtaposed on the rooftop, with a small roof garden hidden within.

The “Hybrid Building” is an experiment in the evolution of “Urban coexistence” in Nantou, which demonstrates a gradual regeneration strategy of preserving the layers of history: to overlay rather than to replace.

Related Project:
Nantou Old Town Preservation and Regeneration

Read for more:
刘刊,陈瑾羲. 叠合、杂糅与共生之下深圳南头杂交楼的城村之策. 时代建筑2022(5) 92-103
孟岩访谈. 他打通1000㎡逼仄居民楼,造空中花园. 一条公众号. 2022.11.22

 

Client: Public Works Bureau of Nanshan District, Shenzhen
Construction Agency: Vanke
Location: Nantou Old Town, Nanshan District, Shenzhen
Design: 2020  Construction: 2020-2022
Site Area: 362㎡ Floor Area: before renovation 1016㎡, after renovation 1090㎡

(LDI) Structure/ MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing): Bowan Architecture
Curtain Wall: Pag Facade Systems Co., Limited
Lighting Design: Grand Sight Design International Limited

Photographers: Zhang Chao, URBANUS