Chinese cities are experiencing unprecedented changes. After about 40 years rapid construction, what follows is the renewal and reconstruction of those prompt construction products. On the one hand, it is to make up for the quality defects caused by speed, and on the other hand, it is to face the dynamic adjustment of rapidly changed daily life. Rapid construction has met people's basic functional needs, while the current adjustment bears meanings of both function and spirit. Public buildings take a substantial leading role. Relying on upgrading functions and forms, they reconstruct the critical nodes of the city and then bring new changes in a larger area and boost the quality of urban space. The relocation of the Liutan Agricultural Trade Market is a typical improvement experiment, a crucial-livelihood guarantee and a critical step to upgrade and adjust the space quality of the whole Liutan area.
The most commonly used and particular urban transformation method in traditional China is "overwriting". When a new turning point comes, the first step is often to erase the original buildings that symbolize the old order, start new construction, and build new blocks and cities. The purpose of this behaviour is to end the old past and make a fresh start. After China's reform and opening up, the large-scale urban structure aims to cover the low-quality living environment built for many years. It also represents a massive change while meeting social needs.
Many urban residences and public buildings have greatly improved the livelihood of urban residents and reshaped the urban context. The original spatial pattern is broken, and a new efficiency-first approach has been implanted. Such a city has solved the people's basic survival needs at a particular stage but has also erased historical life traces.Large-scale rapid construction inevitably lowers the quality requirements of public spaces and buildings. We took an observation on the Liutan farmer's market before the relocation. There were many temporary areas between indoors and outdoors, which met the most basic business functions but should to be more comfortable. The existing farmers' markets need to catch up to the development pace of the times and people's needs. The government has taken a more intelligent approach to the relocation and reconstruction of the farmers' market as a contact point to improve the quality of public buildings and stimulate changes in the city.
The project locates in the centre of the Liutan Community, Liangxi District, Wuxi. In the long-term planning, there will be high-level roads passing through the surrounding areas, and the existing urban spatial order will face significant changes in the near future. The new farmers' market is close to the urban road, and the shape of site is a rare acute triangle. At the beginning of the design, it faced many thorny problems. The new buildings should meet the function and efficiency, shape the image of the future urban road interface, avoid the subway channel, and not block the surrounding houses from sunshine.
Firstly, we unfold the building along the street to form a complete interface. The acute angle triangle divides into different rhombic units. The rhombic units start to rise and turn from the main entrance on the south side step by step, and a triangular atrium space is enclosed along the periphery of the base, thus achieving the primary form of the building. The drop and rise of the diamond-shaped unit is determined by sunshine calculation data, which combines perceptual design techniques with rigorous mathematical calculation. The falling roof is like a blooming flower in an orderly and historical community, like a shining embedded diamond. The unique site has created a special architectural appearance. The new building embeds in the restrained surroundings. The whole area will be activated due to this outsider, creating the possibility of infinite changes in the future.
The whole building is divided into three floors for internal functions. As the primary business space of the farmers' market, the first and second-floor areas are ingeniously divided into vegetable, fruit, aquatic products and cooked food stalls of uniform size without much impact on the space efficiency due to the particular shape of the buildings. The familiar faces of the original Liutan market have been retained, eliminating the strangeness of the change. As the development and construction are all led by the government, as a livelihood project serving the residents. The market merchants can enter this new site with a more beautiful environment and greatly improved conditions at the same rental price. This development mode ensures that the overall price of goods will stay the same due to the construction of new markets, which is impossible for many purely commercial development projects.
The long-established contact between the familiar traders and the same customers has remained the same due to the enormous change, maintaining the original community's harmony and forming a better community atmosphere due to the participation of various new convenient service formats. The application of advanced technologies, such as all digital vegetable markets, has improved food safety and made all goods into a new fresh look. While ensuring the efficiency of use, the interior design applies the building diamond theme to the ceiling and space division, forming a continuous visual contact between inside and outside. The details of different stalls and floors are designed to be easy to clean and maintain according to the daily high-intensity use and change the dirty and disorderly market in the past.
The market, in our imagination, is not a place simply selling daily goods but contains and maintains important community sociality and neighbourhood relations. For an urban resident separated from nature and farmland, the market can also be a "gallery" and "museum" of life, which is a perfect way to contact nature. Efficient and clean space allows banks, supermarkets and grocery stores to willingly enter.
The operators use the parts of the second and third floors for many new business forms and activities. It is not only a simple farmers' market but also contains different contents such as office, leisure, catering, and cultural display, and becomes a high-frequency place for community social interaction. In order to meet the requirements of rapid construction, the building adopted a prefabricated steel structure, which was completed in less than a year. The facade is composed of glass and metal, and the diamond and triangle elements are repeatedly used. The building is presented in the community with a new look. Traditional purchasing activities and new social experiences are combined to become the new life centre of the community.
Like the first flower blooming in the wilderness, the Liutan market will not only show its beautiful life but also bring a bright and colourful spring to the development of the whole region.
Team:
Architects: MINAX Architects
Lead Architect: Zhigang Lu
Architectural Design Team: Congyi Huang, Chenyu Zhong, Dingpeng Liang, Zhirui Liu, Chang Liu, Kris Zhao, Zhite Li, Nidan Wu, Liyi Wu
Interior Design Team：Lei Sun, Xiaorui An, Xuebing Zhang, Siyu Chen
Design Development: Tus-Design Group Co.,Ltd
Client: Wuxi Huangxiang Construction Development Co., Ltd.
Author: Zhigang Lu
Photographer: Wu Qingshan
