Projects for the renovation and reuse of Panjiayuan market, Beijing (group B)

This report is the final product of the Joint Studio Polito-Tsinghua 2014 edition.

The Joint Studio is an academic partnership between two schools of Architecture: the Tsinghua University of Beijing and the Politecnico of Turin. It was initiated on 2008 and it is now in its fourth year.

After having worked in the first edition on the theme of the reuse of structures and systems created for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The Joint Studio has subsequently addressed the issue of urban regeneration to the presence of large Brownfield sites.

The focus of this year’s work has been the transformation of the Panjiayuan Antique Market, one of the largest and most famous antique and handicraft markets in China. Situated in Chaoyang District in a south-east area of Beijing, between the 2nd and the 3rd Ring Road, it occupies an area of 300,000 mq. Founded in 1992 the market has registered a continuous annual growth in both the number of visitors and consequently revenue, tourism has been a major catalyst in this increase. This increase has led to a demand for an extensive transformation of the site and its functions.

The challenge of the 2014 Joint Studio has been to draw up a project for the market transformation: the outcome of the project should ensure functionality inside commercial implantations, highlighting its improved architectural image. Vital to the success of the project is preservation of the distinctive atmosphere that is character of the site. The market is distinguished for its variety of people and goods that originate from all areas of the country, making this a unique place within the city landscape. In the marketplace the tradition and complexity of Chinese antique handicraft are well represented. Here trading activities coexist with cultural instances allowing both sellers and collectors to play an active role in market’s life.

The Panjiayuan’s renovation and related themes gave the opportunity to approach issues that are fundamental in the architectural debate in China. Due its formidable economic growth, cities are changing with an unseen celerity and it is consequently now becoming day by day a privileged stage for contemporary architecture.

A key element of the new market design is the challenge to combine contemporary issues with the preservation of its historical culture and social atmosphere.

The instrumental purpose of the transformation of the area is to maintain the atmosphere of the place and not to be ruled by the material structure that does not have significant architectural value.

In the new edifice all the market’s activities need to be organised, creating an imposed circulation for different functions involving people, goods and vehicles, while allowing space for spontaneous activity.

The proposal is for a creation of a building on a enormous scale, that includes the functional, spatial and distributive complexity of a part of a city, something similar to a “megastructure”. In this way all the programs and a mixture of different functions are incorporated in a single container with space organised on a human scale. The goal of the project is to create a high density building that at the same time exploits the volumetric availability of the area and leaves public space around it to encourage free flow of people.

The architecture of the building is to depict a modern outlook while using traditional attitudes, methods and design to recreate its spaces, structure, image and ethos.

For this reason, the design of the building is composed through the use of market courtyards. Within these courtyards there will be an organised distribution of antique style houses. These will be of wooden structure, using construction methods of ancient temples while also displaying coloured tiles and facades similar to the most significant building in China.

Finally, the project meets requirements of a very complex program working on the organization of different selling typologies that characterised the market and their relation with the different use of space, perceived as void within the big structure.