Just a handful of small a long time ago, the Jinxing Miners’ Canteen was in a condition of disrepair: The ceiling experienced all but collapsed, the wooden was rotting and the complete point needed considerably more than a refreshing coat of paint. Its restoration was the perfect obstacle for French architect Aurelien Chen, who specializes in cultural and renovation projects.
Initially built in the 1970s, the canteen (and the adjacent places of work created by German architects in 1912) when served a group of coal miners. The new iteration by Chen is a vivid cultural house, entire with a literary café, library, exhibition areas, bar, cafe and theatre.
Although the constructing was in poor ailment, it experienced great bones: Its attribute “Red Era” design and style served as the beginning issue for Chen’s redesign. The inside also highlighted typical factors of Western architecture in China, which include a flower-shaped ceiling rose whose form drove the structure of the primary hall. But the genuine pièces de resistance are the arched doorways and vaulted basement, which were being uncovered all through the design section.
The colors, elements and furnishings of the “Red Era” have been reinterpreted to modernize the interior. In the main corridor, a flora-motivated installation usually takes centre phase below the gabled wood roof. The multifunctional room can be made use of as an data desk, exhibition space, relaxation region, phase or for roundtable discussion. The encompassing furnishings get right after the centrepiece’s natural and organic sort, impressed by the current light fixtures’ concentric circles with integrated bookshelves to reduce clutter in the open principle house.
Expertly marrying present and new factors, the bar is divided from the main corridor by a black metal mesh folding display. The building’s concrete walls, painted with slogans from the “Red Era” in Chinese people, assistance the bar, which repurposes the canteen counter from the first creating. The graphic black and white checker-patterned tile floor nods to the space’s authentic finishes, even though vivid inexperienced counter stools and a partition wall created of pink and yellow perforated metallic panels insert a pop of color.
On the other facet of the partition, the cafe strikes an fully various tone. Here, wealthy hues of navy and brass impart a deluxe feel, when the dimpled metallic ceiling bounces light all over the room. To even more emphasize the archways learned in the development period, Chen mimicked these sorts in the restaurant’s booth alcoves, also created of black metallic mesh.
Beneath, a reduce out in the checkered floor, included with glass, will allow people to peer down the first staircase into the basement, visually linking the two levels. In this room, Chen selected the path of small intervention, embracing the historic vaulted framework to build cozy studying nooks and exhibition areas.
An arched Corten steel quantity on the façade now contains the new staircase, whilst blue steel ornaments have been extra to the other openings to unify the constructing with its historic neighbours. Initiated by the area government’s Sustainable Growth Software, the Jinxing Miners’ Canteen renovation varieties component of the Urban and Rural Scheduling and Style Institute of CSCEC’s new learn strategy for the website. Given just a person yr to layout and comprehensive the project, Chen’s sensitive — and economical — redesign provides a window into the previous, even though creating a space that serves the neighborhood in the current.
