The Cultural Center (provisional name) is located in the heart of Lizhuang Ancient Town, a cultural building reconstructed on the site of the former Wangye Temple. In this riverside ancient town, the Wangye Temple was often a place for worshipping the Dragon King and storing dragon boats. As the relationship between the townspeople and the Yangtze River gradually faded, the Wangye Temple successively served as a Taoist temple and a cinema, and finally ended its life as a meat processing plant, falling into disuse in the early 1990s. At the end of 2017, the community hoped to build a cultural venue here, including a cinema, a theater, and a simple space for cultural exchange.
Since the site is located in the core protection area of the ancient town, everyone involved in the project was very concerned about the “architectural form” of the building. This is not just a matter of appearance, but also includes certain perspectives and attitudes towards the future. Although we were repeatedly reminded during the initial survey of the competition to consider the local architectural characteristics and cultural symbols, we have been thinking about how to drive out the established symbols and the practice of imitation from our minds. We not only believe that the charm of the small town should have other elements, but also that the ancient town should be organically updated instead of becoming a static museum.
There is only one urban road around the site, with a small path on the east side cutting through the facade, where there is the Yunmen, the entrance used by the Taoist priests in the evenings. The main functions of the building are enclosed and tall spaces, forming a closed and towering wall. However, we can only observe it from certain angles, as it is tightly enveloped by the surroundings. It is expected that the completed building will have few visible facades. A drone photo taken during the initial survey moved me; the height allowed us to see a side of the small town that is not often revealed— the continuous roofs of the Sichuan Western residential houses and the slowly rising cooking smoke from each courtyard. We hope that this space that moved us can also move more visitors to Lizhuang.
We arranged the tall spaces such as the cinema and theater on the first floor of the building, with a large staircase at the entrance leading to the public space on the second floor. The varied roof design dissolves the massive volume of the building, making it look like a collection of small houses from all angles. The second floor features a transparent curtain wall, providing citizens with a vantage point to observe Lizhuang from the elevated platform. The entrance archway has been preserved; although the building lacks a facade, it retains the original memory of the street.