The town of Wuzhen is famous for its traditional architectural heritage. However, before the advent of tourism, it was a quaint country town with some light industry, most notably a silk factory bordering the canal. Chen Xianghong, the developer of Wuzhen, fought the urban planning laws that mandated the removal of the buildings, and secured the preservation of the factory as well as the underappreciated memory of its recent past.
Built before the modernisation of China, the factory used construction techniques that saved on materials: elaborate concrete trusses carrying a traditional wooden roof frame. Each hall was built successively with its own structural system. The economical process also dictated the use of natural lighting, with incremental differences in each building. The ancillary new buildings by DCA extend this vocabulary in a contemporary fashion.
Article source: gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner
A rehabilitation clinic in the Wuzhen landscape park in China completed by gmp
In Wuzhen, which is located one hundred kilometers to the south-west of Shanghai in the midst of one of China’s oldest cultivated areas, a rehabilitation clinic with the character of a hotel was built to a design by gmp, Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners. The project is jointly funded by German hospital operators and Chinese partners and, with its special medical and architectural standards, addresses the more demanding standards within the Chinese health market.
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