© Chun Fang

(春芳)

架构师提供的文本描述。胡同绿厂媒体

Text description provided by the architects. The Arrow Factory Hutong Media & Culture Creative Space is symbolically right next to the wall of the Imperial Academy heritage. The site is one the so called “arrow factory”- old warehouses with immense space inside, and the ground floor has already been devided and enclosed as a “Siheyuan” type courtyard, due to the previous hutong re-development. This project is a regeneration-by-intervention, starting from the existing spatial framework, yet aiming at transforming it from a vast empty warehouse to a space that filled with unleashed vitality, for crowds of people from creative cultural industry to gather around and communicate. It will not only offer diverse programs such as: meeting, screening, library, bar, entertainment, co-working…but also become a“collaborative commune”of those who are interested in the innovation of media and culture. 

随着几百年历史遗留下来的帝国书院的老墙，你进入的第一个空间是一个适当规模的“四合院”，接待室和会议室围绕着它展开。如果你走楼梯到上面的甲板上，你就能在你眼前看到“碧永”-皇帝过去在皇宫里给学生讲课的金顶宫殿大厅。

Following the old wall of Imperial Academy mottled by hundreds of years of history, the first space you enter is a proper-scaled “siheyuan”, reception and meeting rooms unfold around it. If you take the stairway to the deck above, you can actually see the “Biyong”-  the golden-roofed palace hall where the emperor used to give lectures to his students in the Imperial Academy - right in front of you eyes.

 © Chun Fang

(春芳)

为了充分利用空间的高度，我们为扩展程序增加了一个夹层，并留下了几个连接双高度空间的空隙。此外，我们还在空间中插入了各种木制阁楼(或盒子)，以刺激用户之间的动态交流。

In order to fully exploit the height of the space, we added a mezzanine floor for extended program, and leave several voids connecting the double height space. Further more, we have inserted various wood attics (or boxes) into the space, in order to stimulate dynamic communication between the users.

如果我们只是遵循现有的开放但平淡的空间框架，在巨大的空间内发生的任何“创造性事件”都有陷入同质环境的危险，失去了它的焦点，这就是为什么大量的“木阁楼”被作为辅助设备引入的原因。活动现在可以遵循不同的轨迹，在这些阁楼周围或内部展开。一旦你在这些小的封闭空间中，你会发现许多有趣的窗口开口，比如针对特定视图的取景器，这将重新连接不同的空间叙事线程，从而使用户能够体验意想不到的场景并交换他们的想法。

If we simply follow the existing open but bland spatial framework, any “creative event”that happens within the huge space would have the danger of falling into a homogeneous setting and lost its focus, that’s why numerous “wood attics” are introduced as enabling devices. Activities could now follow different trajectories, unfolding around or within those attics. Once you are inside those small enclosed spaces, you would find many interesting window openings, like view-finders, targeted at specific views, which would re-link different threads of spatial narrative, and therefore, enable the user to experience the un-expected scenarios and exchange their thoughts.

 © Chun Fang

(春芳)

每个阁楼都有一个特定的程序：显示、会议、图书馆、娱乐、酒吧…。以一种独特而生动的形式呈现出来。不仅仅是为了表达它们，每一件精致的物品都进化成一种使能的装置，或者是一种开关，可以开启一种有形的叙事体验。在改造的过程中，你可能会发现一些有趣的干预类型，但归根结底，这一切都必须与人们的使用相结合。

Each Attic has a specific program: display, meeting, library, entertainment, bar…presenting itself in an unique and vivid form. Not only to just express them, each of these exquisite objects also evolves as an enabling device, or a switch that can turn on a tangible narrative experience. In the process of renovation, you may discover some interesting typology of intervention, yet at the end of the day, it all has to be combined with the usage of people.

 © Chun Fang

(春芳)

 © Chun Fang

(春芳)

Architects META Studio

Location Beijing, China

Category Refurbishment

Design Team Shuo Wang, Jing Zhang, Yaping Wu

Area 400.0 m2

Project Year 2014

Photographs Chun Fang