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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Tan Alley • Wuzhen Eco and Cultural Community in Jiaxing, China by Bob Chen Design OfficeAugust 26th, 2020 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Bob Chen Design Office Part 1: Spanning Public to Private Bob Chen Design Office completed a 100-year-old village reconstruction project in Wuzhen. The owners are part of the new generation of rapid urbanization. They saw opportunity in the disorderly development outside the official scenic spot and an apparent conflict with traditional lifestyles. Traditional regionalism is not the only characteristic of Wuzhen. Daily village life and Jiangnan regionalism can, and should, include urban cosmopolitanism and high-class experiences. They discovered Tanjiaqiao Village, then entrusted Bob Chen with creating a new exploration in urbanization development and village reconstruction in Wuzhen.  Image Courtesy © Wen Office
 Image Courtesy © Wen Office The project team consists of designer, planners, hotel management, artists, and cross-cultural communication experts. Bob Chen takes on all core design steps from visual design, architectural planning, spatial arrangement, interior decoration, and landscaping. The project will be carried out in three phases. The first phase of the project focused on the hotel, urban aesthetics and luxury experiences all combined into both solid architecture and dynamic scenes. These integrate Bob Chen’s design exploration and experience as well as stimulating future possibilities. Tan Alley is a village reconstruction project. The design of the architectural space is constrained by regional planning and traditional context. Therefore, we needed a “from the inside out” design strategy, focusing on micro-transformation or breakthrough in the façade, texture, content, and scene, exploring high-quality personalized urban lifestyle, and how to smoothly blend with the town.  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office Naming: “Tan Alley” recalls the village concept of the neighborhood, and responds to the psychological needs of urbanites to escape the hustle and bustle for Tan Alley Wuzhen Eco & Cultural Community. The name of each element is given a numeric sequence and references artistic concepts and ancient poetry. These convey, stimulate, and transmit a nuanced impression of a community: Tan Alley, first, second and third courtyards, five or six households long the water, seven or eight neighbors, nine or ten blocks.  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Xuguo TANG Part II: Time and Texture Foundations of individual style research and exploration into lifestyle and work, from urban and rural spaces can promote further design value impact. Design Summary: Habitat is a space of dynamic social interaction; Alley is a form of diverse community. As the name suggests, Tan Alley is an interactive and community-focused hotel brand. The design creates diverse, superlative, urban scenes from interiors, furnishings, products, forms and sensory experiences to promote a deep integration of Jiangnan locality and modern lifestyle.  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office The Texture of Time We have been exploring how matter and space have become both the medium and image of the perception of time, that is, “the texture of time.” This texture can withstand gaze, touch and experience, solidify the fleeting, shape memory, eliminate barriers between tradition and modernity, melt the material with the aesthetic, and penetrate life with feeling. Through reductionism, we reduce the historical expression behind the materiality and the materials in Tan Alley as much as possible. We construct a new space and object language of scale, relationship, sense, and order everywhere: from individual rooms to public areas, from furniture and lighting. This integration of matter and space reflects our pursuit of “the texture of time”. Upon arriving at Tan Alley, people can be liberated from the heavy, rigid, standardized, context of an ancient town, and escape from the tension and high pressure of the city. Unconventional Space People who love Tan Alley should have the experience of excellence or anticipation for the spaces of “every day time” and “extraordinary time”. We provide experiences of “unconventional”, “non-traditional” and “non-westernized” spaces. Lobby spaces with sky windows, large metal walls with flexible corners, indirect light sources, and copper lines in calm, simple, water-polished floors sparkling in the light: these unique elements provide distance from commonplace, traditional spatial language while also gradually creating familiarity.  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office A range of customized furniture in the hotel lobby, including specially-made lamps by independent designers, form a visual rhythm in counterpoint to the thick and partial vertical and horizontal surfaces. These visual notes compose space that flows as a serendipitous song of time. Time for Watching the Clouds Our restaurants and bars in Tan Alley provide urban lifestyle experiences, making up for the lack of nightlife in the ancient town. At the same time, drawing on the glass house concept of Philip Johnson, the wide, large, glass windows bring four seasons of the village to life. At the end of the day, the extraordinary lighting and intertwined experiences not only encourage people to change from the everyday to the extraordinary, but also creates a cup of time when they can sit and watch the clouds.  Image Courtesy © Xuguo TANG  Image Courtesy © Wen Office The Expanse of Time Considering external constraints, we choose materials that convey time, such as copper, cement, stone, and solid wood, for façades, decorative material texture, material transition, color system integration, visual conversion and product ‘feel’. In an era of rapid obsolescence, we push against the tide. We use the materials and space of this project to create lasting relationships between people and things; people and space become intimate and relaxed because of this subtle sense of the expanse of time. Consistent Excellence Excellence exists not only in the private spaces of Tan Alley, but is also equally important in open spaces. Custom furniture, accessories, lighting, and even the configuration of every piece of tea, are designed to create consistent excellence. Color and light, form and scale, sturdiness and comfort lend small town life a cosmopolitan attitude.  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office 38 Rooms, 30 Styles Village renovation was the toughest design difficulty. All rooms need to be updated based on the spatial structure of the original village residents. As a design hotel, non-standardization is our theme. This has resulted in a variety of room types ranging from standard rooms, suites, lofts to single-family homes. Tan Alley has become the design hotel with the most large-sized rooms in Wuzhen. We provide our guests a superlatively imaginative stay experience. Urban Experiences in a Village The rooms are different with selected designer brands, international design brand furniture, German high-end bedding products, and bathing accessories combine with unique modern minimalist aesthetics and quality leisure experiences, creating an unexpectedly urban, high-end, comfortable, home away from home. All are hidden within Tan Alley.  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office Leisure and Fun In Tan Alley, every exquisite lighting piece, every comfortable piece of furniture, and every night of deep sleep with sweet dreams, you can find a deep sense of relaxation that the city does not have without giving up the taste of the city, and the comforts of ‘home’. Interested guests can easily discover that, whether in a suite or a standard room, a “non-standardized” character has been created from spatial order planning to the placement of the home accessories, even including the art work on the wall. We have designed each room invisibly to provide “the unique”. These premium customized products create specific places, providing more flavorful experiences for our guests staying in Tan Alley.  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Salomé WANG Review and summary: At Tan Alley, we are not only designers of architecture, interior, products and vision, but have also become scene imaginers, business connectors and lifestyle creators. Fortunately, we cooperate only with renowned, quality enterprises, on a real-life case by case basis. We take aesthetics as our axis and an experiential approach to space as our foundation. We cross the boundaries between art design and residential life, integrating leisure, fashion and culture. We express the texture of time through material and space. Through this dialogue between the contemporary and the local, a century-old community has been transformed into a new landmark in the ancient town ready to embrace the future.  Image Courtesy © Salomé WANG  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Wen Office  Image Courtesy © Bob Chen Design Office  Image Courtesy © Bob Chen Design Office  Image Courtesy © Bob Chen Design Office
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Categories: Community Centre, Cultural Center |
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