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Xuechen Chen's The Folding Boat Community Center presents a striking architectural visualization rendered during the liminal blue hour, where a dramatically cantilevered structure rises from the…
The Folding Boat Community Center by xuechen chen presents a striking architectural composition characterized by a dramatic folded-plane roof structure that cantilevers boldly over a luminous glazed…
The Folding Boat Community Center presents a double-height atrium where warm honey-toned wood panels fold and cantilever across pale gray concrete surfaces, creating a dynamic composition governed by…
Warm honey-toned timber planes intersect with luminous expanses of diffused natural light to establish a spatial composition of remarkable geometric elegance and phenomenological warmth within The…
Converging planes of honeyed timber and cool pale concrete compose xuechen chen's The Folding Boat Community Center, a soaring double-height interior space where angular ceiling geometries fold and…

Silver Idea · 2024

The Folding Boat Community Center

by Xuechen Chen

  • Silver A' Design Award 2024 in Idea
  • CLIENT: Xuechen Chen
  • Estimated Number of Design Views: 282,924
  • Verification code 53560699F8 · Verify this award
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About The Folding Boat Community Center

The Folding Boat, located along the shore of the Harlem River, is a multifunctional space serving as a rowing facility for the community college, a small library, and a museum dedicated to sport rowing. Featuring a folded metal roof, this structure defines its interior space by seamlessly blending walls into ceilings. Positioned at the convergence of historical and modern districts, the meticulous placement of elements respects programs, circulation, and the urban landscape.

About the Silver A' Design Award

The Folding Boat Community Center is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. The Folding Boat Community Center is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. The Folding Boat Community Center is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.

Press Kit

Unique Properties
The Folding Boat, located along the shore of the Harlem River, is a multifunctional space serving as a rowing facility for the community college, a small library, and a museum dedicated to sport rowing. Featuring a folded metal roof, this structure defines its interior space by seamlessly blending walls into ceilings. Positioned at the convergence of historical and modern districts, meticulous placement of elements respects programs, circulation, and the urban landscape.
Dimensions & Packaging
18,000sf
Tags
culture, community center, wood, metal, concrete
Production Technology
metal, glass and wood panel
Design Challenge
The multiversity of the programs and the materials.
Research
This research abstract explores the integration of folding as architectural elements across various scales, experiences, and programs within the context of the Rowing Boat project. Serving as a sport museum, rowing boat facility for a local college, and a community center for the neighborhood, the project examines how folding techniques can be applied to create dynamic spaces and functional designs. Through case studies and design explorations, this research delves into the innovative use of folding to enhance architectural aesthetics, spatial experiences, and programmatic functionalities within a multi-functional facility.
Inspiration
The project's inspiration stems from the unique topography of the site, characterized by varying slopes. This distinctive landscape presents an opportunity to mimic and enhance the site's features through the use of folding in the design. The folded elements not only echo the site's topography but also contribute to the project's special aesthetic qualities.
Project Duration
Unbult, Bronx, Newyork
Operation Flow
The Folding Boat project draws inspiration from the site's unique topography, using folding in design to echo its slopes and enhance aesthetics. Located along the Harlem River, it's a rowing facility, small library, and sport museum. The folded metal roof blends spaces, respecting historical context and urban landscape. This research explores folding's integration in various scales, programs, and experiences, enhancing architectural aesthetics and functionality.
Image Credits
XUECHEN CHEN

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