Isabelle Laurent
In 2022, the HE Foundation launched the ” HE INTERACTION” project, and jointly with Shunde District Social Innovation Center, GUANGZHOU ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, and 7+5 Public Welfare Design Organization, launched a community art creation plan based on the excavation and research of local culture – through space transformation, exhibitions, and continuous output of multicultural activities, talents are gradually transformed, promoting their promotion of regional artistic vitality and building a sustainable regional art ecology. It is committed to building a platform for community and social interaction and integration, forming a social network that pays attention to community art creation issues, and gradually becoming a model of regional continuous innovation, providing a practical model for the overall exploration of community art development in China.
From project initiation to site selection, PMT Partners has been deeply involved throughout. This is a multi-party collaborative public welfare project. The designed sites were selected from idle villages, communities or public Spaces in different towns and sub-districts of Shunde. The first phase consists of four renovated community art Spaces. The site designed by the PMT Partners is located beside the Fisherman’s Wharf in Ronggui, Shunde, in the Greater Bay Area.
The original site of the base was a four-story homestead that had been idle for many years. The location where he is situated is very interesting. This building faces the Desheng River and is located at the must-pass spot at the village entrance. It is also within the scope of the Ronggui Fisherman’s Wharf Food Factory. Therefore, his identity simultaneously possesses the attributes of an old city, an old village, and an old factory. The vertical and upright volume is precisely like a boundary marker between the city, the village and the factory.
The first time I went to the site for an inspection, I was shuttling through this dense cluster of handshake buildings, typical of the streets and alleys in the urban villages of the Pearl River Delta: the adjacent houses were closely packed together – it was completely a one-line sky state. One side faces a narrow alley – just the size of a two-lane road that can accommodate oncoming vehicles. The building has only one side that is relatively open and faces the main road, which serves as a significant indicator at the village entrance. Walking into the interior of the building, the brick-concrete structure has a small space on each floor. The partition walls of light steel keels divide each floor into small rooms. Climbing up the narrow stairs, you will reach the rooftop on the fourth floor. Pushing the door out, the fresh river breeze hits you. Standing on the terrace and looking towards the Desheng River, it is very lively. The scene here is chaotic and full of vitality. Buildings of different ages, different business formats, and busy people are intertwined; in the distance are the industrial ruins of Shunde Sugar Factory and the endless green hills. The elements of city, village, factory, and river seem to be installed in this small rooftop. Although the mixed scene is not exquisite, it shows charming complexity and wild vitality.
This interesting context contains a wealth of site information, and local stories await visitors to explore and discover. However, the young ladies who came to take photos and check in seemed not to care about the activities in the community, and the local residents also lacked places to participate in the exchange of community culture. There is no physical boundary among the city, village and factory, but few people are willing to get close to each other to learn about the stories around them. The significance of this community-building activity lies in making this space a new handle and anchor point for the “neighborhood”, and reconstructing everyone’s perception of the neighborhood.
Therefore, we raised several questions for this renovation design: We hope to convey some of our ideas through design:
1. How can we establish the identity of this building to make it “visible” in this community?
2. How to coexist with the surrounding environment so that the design object is not an object but a space?
3. How can local elements be reflected and how can the genes of the site be perceived by the public?
4. How to deal with the layer of time so that traces of history can be presented in the building?
Spiritual Lighthouse – Call and Assembly
In response to the first question, the inspiration from the on-site observation is that the location of this building is very indicative, whether from the overlooking of the tower residence, the upward view at the entrance of the village, or the distant view of the old factory square. We hope to use the rooftop on the fourth floor to create a spiritual highland like a lighthouse on the riverside, light up the art activities of the surrounding communities, and bring a signal of calling and gathering to this “disappearing neighborhood”.
On the roof of the fourth floor, we placed a light volume, whose shape resembles both a pair of wings taking off and a smile given to the community. The slender rows of columns on both sides support the volume of the inverted arch. Here, various forms of art activities will be held. It is like a community magnetic field under the eaves, attracting different people from the surrounding area to explore. At night, it shines like a lighthouse in the old village. When you put the installation and model on this layer, you will add a layer of urban information. It is no longer isolated and independent like in an abstract white box. This multi-meaning space under the eaves has a new chemical reaction with the original surrounding scenes, creating a window for outputting ideas, providing more possibilities for some new urban events, urban spaces, and even new business formats in the future.
People can stay there, look into the distance and imagine the historical scenes of the past. The exhibition is “alive”. The changes of the surrounding city, historical traces and future development are all within your sight. What you see “nearby” itself might be the most valuable part of the exhibition. So this is an experience venue that tells stories through the space and creates emotional exchanges with people. The roof adopts an anti-arch volume, and the colonnades on both sides are symmetrical and ceremonial. Rainwater gathers in the middle gutter through the slope, and then drains to the ground in an organized manner through the downpipe and rain chain. There are drip lines around the aluminum plate ceiling, and two water barriers are set at the intersection with the column. A linear light strip with a metal volume is hung on the middle wall, which can illuminate the bottom of the entire roof at night. At this time, the roof will look more like a pair of wings taking off.
Community Symbiosis – From “Objects” to “Places”
Although the original task of the renovation was just an independent residential site in the village, we believe that the significance of community building lies in the linkage and symbiosis with the surrounding areas. So we set our sights on a larger scope. In the treatment of the facade and surrounding landscape, we continued the red color block to integrate it with the Shuangxi Niu Za Shop next door: the lemon tree between the two buildings was retained, the shop awning was renovated, and the leisure space was extended to the village entrance through the ground paving, which transformed the entire renovation object from “object” to “field”. This new flexible community field will give nearby residents a new memory foundation.
The red volume facing the street and alley attracts the attention of nearby passers-by. Thin metal window frames are inlaid in the thick red walls. The hanging window sills place introductions and posters about the exhibition. Passers-by stop to observe the exhibition inside. The window sills, which update the content from time to time, form an interactive space with the community. Unlike the spiritual roof volume at the top, the red volume standing in the alley below is always filled with the daily life and the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood. We jokingly call these two parts “ritual on the head and down-to-earth at the feet”. We have always hoped that cities can become more complex, more imaginative, freer, more open and inclusive. Young people, old people, locals, and outsiders can all be attracted together by some events or magnetic fields, and can harmoniously share a way of life that juxtaposes history and contemporary life.
Gazing into the gaps – The play of observation
Narrow streets, tight building spacing, and daily life on homesteads. Sunlight, air, and sight all come from these vertical narrow gaps. We want to give meaning to the daily trivialities that people ignore when walking through the streets and alleys. The local genes of these urban villages inspired us to transform the facade. We want people to look at these gaps again and pay attention to the forgotten neighborhoods. These slender window frames on the facade allow people to discover, observe, and record through a unique perspective. The external scenes are embedded in the process of indoor viewing, and the repertoire of life is interestingly discovered and frozen in frames. The slender and long Windows are embedded within the thick walls, creating gaps in the facade. Peeping inside and outside the building has become a daily part of interaction. As night fell, the blue hue cast by the sky outside seemed to add a layer of color to the Windows and also a touch of psychedelic hues to the indoor atmosphere.
Traces of Time – Layers of History
Inside the building, we scraped off the original putty to reveal the original appearance of the building structure, allowing the historical information hidden beneath the decoration to be presented: the genuine concrete floor slabs and red brick walls serve as the historical layers of the building. Set up a white display wall at a height of 500 to 2900mm above the ground as the current time layer. The contrast between the two layers creates a sense of contrast between the old and the new, and the traces of time are revealed. The floor is paved with red antique tiles, which form a dialogue with the rough red bricks at the base of the walls. The texture of the paving follows the wood grain direction of the top concrete floor slab. The sky, the ground and the walls form an organic whole where new and old information superimpose. The red bricks inside the building also form a harmonious contrast with the red textured paint outside, making the overall look more natural and integrated.
Cultural Anchorage – History and Future, Daily Life and Ritual, Collective and Individual
Transform the seemingly meaningless trivialities of daily life into meaningful narratives. Build the nearby area into a foundation for reflecting on personal life and participating in public discussions. To endow this abandoned space with meaning, what is needed is not merely a glamorous exterior. It is more about inspiring a vibrant and imaginative daily life, enabling people to better appreciate and understand the differences in society, and to bravely and wisely find a new “anchor” for today’s seemingly out-of-control life. And we believe that this anchor is precisely the original intention behind the name “Cultural Anchor”.
It is true that we cannot change the cultural ecology and social relations of the entire region through the renovation of a building of several hundred square meters. We just hope that the “Cultural Anchor” project can serve as a spark to inspire the surrounding communities. Guangdong has always been a pioneer in bottom-up development. Community building is not based on fiction and imagination, but on real life situations. The moment a building is completed is the beginning of its use. The real test requires continuous operation to bring about tangible changes. After the completion of the cultural anchor, it was taken over by the CANTONBON Borges Bookstore Art Institution. Through activities and creative practices such as opening a comic strip store, planning thematic exhibitions, holding woodworking workshops, LE SOIR “Come and Play” literary writing discussion activities, and women’s writing groups, literature and art have become the forces that unite the community, enrich the cultural ecosystem, and stimulate the potential of the community
The PMT Partners has been practicing in the Pearl River Delta for a long time, and has been continuously thinking about the renewal research of old cities, old villages and old factories. Facing this familiar land, we have always been looking forward to another ending between urban and rural areas in parallel time and space – one that is not swept away by capital, a timeline that is not erased, and a possibility of returning to the neighborhood and community.
In the early concept, the cultural anchor was planned to develop in coordination with the surrounding residents and provide outdoor recreational spaces for the public. The integrated design, extending from the building façade to the ground landscape, made this area more in line with the theme of community symbiosis. Later, due to time and cost constraints, the surrounding environmental improvements were not realized as originally envisioned in the first phase of the renovation. Therefore, it fell short of the ideal state, which remains a regret from this renovation, and hopefully there will be an opportunity to make up for it in the future. The completion of this public welfare design project was made possible with the support of many parties, including: Project Planning and Funding——HE FOUNDATION, Project Organizer——SHUNDE SOCIAL INNOVATION CENTER, Project Assistance Handling——SHUNDE RONGGUI TIME Cultural and Tourism Industry Limited Company、DONGFENG Community Residents’ Committee、Special thanks go to the support for space renovation—the 7+5 Public Welfare Design Organization—for providing guidance and protection throughout this renovation process. I hope there will be more opportunities to work alongside all the kind-hearted people in public welfare in the future, continuing to shine and make an impact. Just as sociologist Fei Xiaotong hoped: everyone appreciates his or her own beauty, appreciates the beauty of others, and all beauties are shared, and the world will be united.
Project info:
- Interior Designers: PMT Partners
- Country: China, Foshan
- Area: 270 m²
- Year: 2024
- Photographs: Zhe Zeng, Liky Lam, PMT Partners
- Manufacturers: Arrow, Florina Ceramics, Nippon Paint, hesper
- Lead Architects: Yan Hu, Weihao Zhao, Zhe zeng
- Design Team: Zhenlin Gu, Yonglong Mo, Wei Chen, Haiyuan Zhong
Tags: 2024ChinaFoshanHE INTERACTIONLiky LamPMT PartnersZhe Zeng
Isabelle Laurent
Isabelle Laurent is a Built Projects Editor at Arch2O, recognized for her editorial insight and passion for contemporary architecture. She holds a Master’s in Architectural Theory from École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville. Before joining Arch2O in 2016, she worked in a Paris-based architectural office and taught as a faculty adjunct at the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. Isabelle focuses on curating projects around sustainability, adaptive reuse, and urban resilience. With a background in design and communication, she brings clarity to complex ideas and plays a key role in shaping Arch2O’s editorial
