600 years ago, Xianyukou was a dock on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Cannel noted for its fish market. Today, the cannel no longer exists and the neighborhoods are withered. New pseudo classic buildings were built solely for the sake of tourism. The ancient city reconstruction in the past 10 years has ruined many city textures.

The new residential compounds cannot restore the neighborhood’s original sense of community, while areas that haven’t developed yet are lack of residential facilities, leading to a lack of variety in the residential population. Consequentially, the city’s economic development is short of necessary stimulation.

To protect historical elements of a city, we should mainly focus on the city’s living space and environment instead of making the fake antique architectural structures. The best way to bring an ancient city back to life with the lowest cost is to bring in new and energetic people. We need to attract new people to come back and make this city their home again, which can stimulate the ancient city’s economy and develop a new healthy circulation of business in the community. This is the only way to stimulate the growth of a city effectively.

Concept

A real city is not about the scale and the age, but the sense of energy it possess. It comes with a soul and character. It carries people’s memories and future. We need to avoid massive demolition and construction, to preserve old buildings to correspond to the urban renewal. Newly built buildings could optimize community integration, which enables nature to permeate into the space. We try to make real urban life happen and social ecology returned in this neighborhood by increasing density and vitality.

Four methods. Five principles. Six ideas.

We follow principles in the design: tradition, future, nature, humanity and art. We preserve the old houses and ancient trees to preserve traditions. To activate the vitality of a city to make the conversation between the tradition and the future possible. The design implies ancient eastern philosophy with respects to nature and humanity, and will be unfolded in a spontaneous artistic way.