Architects: BKK Architects + Brearley Architects & Urbanists
Location: Fengxian Campus, Shanghai, China
Project Team: Tim Black, Julian Kosloff, Simon Knott, Madeleine Beech, James Brearley, Shirley Brearley
Type: Invited Competition
Proposed Expected Completion: 2014
Designed by BKK Architects, in collaboration with Brearley Architects & Urbanists, Shanghai Normal University’s new Cultural Center aims to create an intensive and richly mixed-use building by applying the lessons of the city and drawing upon the cloister typology. Arranged around an activated central courtyard, the project will provide a new focus for campus life, accommodating a broad range of cultural, retail, hospitality, and leisure activities. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located on the banks of the Xin Nong River, the center includes an elevated plaza and adjacent outdoor amphitheatre will provide views across the river to the main campus. The raking form of the auditorium roof together with the curving foyer façade and broad flank of the stage and fly tower recalls the figure of the Jin Chan, a popular Feng Shui charm for prosperity.
The smaller scale formal manipulations in the façade, foyer and roofline to the theatre reference the pleats and folds of theatre curtains, providing a playful and theatrical concave surface as a backdrop to the theatre of campus life.
