Changbaishan 3 Public Activity Centers

Changbaishan is a mountain that’s running across three provinces in northeast China, also forms a natural boundary between China and North-Korea. It is regarded as the origin of Korean culture, with many small Chinese-Korean villages scattering around. As a sleeping volcano for over three hundred years, this area has been a beautiful national park attracts tourists from all over the world. With the new Baixi airport opening summer 2008, a new town – Baixi – is under planning to be constructed next year.

Planning:

Three public buildings are located in a triangular geometry in Baixi town, to create trial town activity centers. The definition of each public space are generated from the program of individual buildings, creates three different public territory with unique setting and atmosphere, while the overall organization becomes a public space system in Baixi.

Client: Changbaishan Construction Committee

Design Team: DnA _Beijing

Architect: Xu Tiantian

Design Period: 2007

Completion: 2008-10

Building Area: 3x1000sm

Information & exhibition – INFO TREE:

1. Building: As an arrival facility to visitors, this building is to introduce tourism attractions and geographic information of Changbai Mountain. The program requires exhibition space, café, gift shop, management office, and a viewing platform above 20meters in elevation. So the public area is stretching up like a Changbaishan pine tree, with a continuous exhibition space starting from ground level, to a glass-wall enclosed café at the top floor, and a roof terrace with a view of 360 degree. With a series of punch openings along the exhibition path, the outdoor landscape interacts with indoor exhibition contents becomes a multi-dimension introduction, the building is telling about the area like cross-road signs.

A red-painted steel core accommodating glass elevator, outdoor steel fire stair and vertical pile shafts is functioning as the structure of entire building like a tree trunk, contrasting with a dark wood building surface.

2. Public Space: An open public plaza will occur round Info Tree as an arrival information plaza next to future hotel development on west side before entering to Baixi town.

 

Entertainment & Performance – THE ROCK:

1. Building: Karaoke singing and dancing has been a prominent culture among local Korean life style. The building program of KaraOk, theater and multi-function ballroom requires individual spaces that are not necessarily interfering with each other or the surroundings. These spaces are regarded as rocks, with disconnection between inside and outside. The stepping floor of theater sitting on top of lower level café interacts with the ground to create a sunken casual performing garden, while a sloping roof for acoustical purpose in each rock space unifies on the roof level becoming an roof theater that can host outdoor rock concert.

Concrete is used as both structure and surface material. A raw concrete surface is left without polishing assembling the local rocky mountain surface.

2. Public Space: The space around the Rock will be a garden with local plants. Rock is a landscape element in the garden.

Sports & Leisure – BRIDGING WATER:

1. Building: With a location crossing a creek on site, and a program of majority water sports such as swimming pool, leisure pool, spa, and other supporting facilities, we spread out all the water program on first floor, along with outdoor water plaza to form a water topography, with the rest programs crossing above like bridges. The interaction of bridges creates vertical voids overlooking water topography, channeling light and visual dialogues toward water surface from bridges.

Glass partitions are used inside without interfering the visual dialogues. Water becomes an important building material here with its wave and the reflections on other surfaces when interacting with light. A glass skin is also wrapping around the exterior white walls, etched with a white floral patterns. In cloudy days, the building appears blank white surface. When the sun comes, shadow of white floral patterns on the wall behind extrudes. The shadow pattern on building surface captures the movement of sun and light.

2. Public Space: Water plaza is the public space as outdoor leisure pools for children in most of the time, except in winter it becomes an outdoor ice-skating area with a view of indoor swimming pool.