overview © TAOA

It's a building renovation project. In an old traditional neighborhood, the base is located on the south shore of Jinan DaMing Lake. The building has been transformed from offices and a hotel into an artistic and cultural complex, opening up to the city with a simple and distinctive personality, reuniting the natural landscape of lake and the lakeside historical and cultural district, activating and bringing new vitality to this historic city.

With a more open attitude, the client hopes that the building will become a gathering place for urban culture and art, bring new experiences to this gray-based old town, and lead new cultural life in Jinan. For this, design starts from the original basic condition of the building.

view from the residential area © TAOA

night view from northeast © TAOA

The building is the reinforced concrete frame structure, and the floor slab adopted a prestressing system. Low floor heights and the lack of connection among floors shackle the openness and freedom that art spaces should have. From the inside out, we reorganized the building's function, creating the freedom and proper variation of the interior space, thus affecting the facade and connecting with the open view of DaMing Lake.

image before renovation © TAOA

detail of exterior © TAOA

night view of exterior © TAOA

© TAOA

We separate some relatively independent and closed functions to form multiple independent "boxes", which are freely stacked, staggered and squeezed within the framework of the six-storey space, blanking the homogeneous structural columns, and breaking the horizontal limitation of the floors. The blank-leaving among the "boxes" become open functions, creating a column-free public space that crosses the floor, flows freely and grows vertically where the upper and lower floors connect. The corridor of horizontal traffic function is also integrated into the public space and interconnected. The original structural frame and floor panels were visually liberated.

Massing generation © TAOA

© TAOA

© TAOA

public exhibition area © TAOA

The changes in the core are reflected in the façade and shape of the building. The open public space vacated by the "boxes" maximizes the scenery of DaMing Lake on the north side and the sunlight on the south side into the interior, and the squeeze of the "boxes" creates a more permeable interior space of the building, from the inside out, strengthening the sense of transparency of the landscape at the external opening.

© TAOA

public office area © TAOA

meeting room © TAOA

public area © TAOA

glass blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior © TAOA

The definition of the functional attributes of building is not a very clear distinction, and human use cannot be simply regulated. Not limited by the original floor height, we use the location of the floor slab that has been demolished and modified in the creation of internal space to open up the connection among floors and establish a new space height of the public part, and also reduces the secondary damage caused by the original structure.

Functional layout © TAOA

public area © TAOA

The building combines art galleries, theaters, art bookstores, cultural and creative space and art education into complex with different attributes and atmospheres, and related commercial behaviors rely on these open places. Art and commerce are blended together without clear physical boundaries. Art galleries, art bookstores, and cultural and creative space run through multiple floors through public staircases at the openings of the floors, allowing for maximum sharing of art spaces.

Functional diagram © TAOA

bookstore © TAOA

rest area of the office © TAOA

private area © TAOA

We add a fully open transportation system in the cross-level public space and retains the convenience of vertical elevators. The spiral staircase extends vertically like a sculpture, connecting the platforms of different heights. Open traffic constantly shifts positions in the space, traversing different functions in roaming, increasing the sense of experience of the building and connecting the floors to the ground.

（rendering）© TAOA

（rendering）© TAOA

To make these stacked "boxes" a whole, we wrapped the surface of the building with aluminum sheets. Echoing the interior space, punched aluminum plates with different permeability produce the transparency required, so that the wrapped "boxes" space can be perceived by pedestrians walking on the street. The aluminum plates are folded out of the corrugated shape, so that it can generate enough stress on itself without creating excess structure. The punched aluminum panels as windows of independent space, and together with the blank-leaving among the "boxes", are superimposed on the facade, forming staggered layer imprints of different sizes. At the same time, the public part has become more open.

view from northwest © TAOA

view from northeast © TAOA

At night, interior lighting shines through surface holes and openings, rendering the entire building warm. Due to the staggering and continuity, the internal become both independent and mixed, forming a three-dimensional, abundant, open and free art life experience center.

© TAOA

top floor © TAOA

The original equipment is moved and the roof is transformed into a covered semi-outdoor dining event venue, which offers panoramic views of DaMing Lake and the beautiful scenery of Jinan's historic city.

(Note: For special reasons, the internal vertical space and open spiral staircase in the design It will be implemented in subsequent construction, and the structural reinforcement and condition reservation have been completed now.)

site plan © TAOA

Space system diagram © TAOA

1F © TAOA

2F © TAOA

3F © TAOA

4F © TAOA

5F © TAOA

6F © TAOA

south elevation © TAOA

north elevation © TAOA

section © TAOA

Construction details © TAOA

Project name: Daminghu 100 Culture & Arts Center
Project type: architecture/interior/landscape
Project location: Minghu Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China
Design firm: TAOA (WWW.i-taoa.com)
Chief designer: Tao Lei
Design team: Tao Lei, Chen Zhen, Zhou Yumuling, Duan Zhenqiang, Li Gen, Xu Lili, Shi Tong, Sun Lang, Dai Yunyi, Li Jiming
Interns: Meng Xiangrui, Liu Zishen, Man Renfang
Clients: Shandong Lucion Investment Holdings Group Co., Ltd., Central Academy of Fine Arts
Project status: built (The construction of the refined finishing touches and decoration for interior atrium is yet to be completed)
Design phase: 2017-2019
Constriction phase: 2019-2022
Gross floor area: 6,020 sqm

Construction drawings collaboration: China Building Technique Group Co.,Ltd.
Interior design: TAOA
Landscape design: TAOA
Lighting consulting: Jijing Lighting
Photography: Tao Lei