Press Release
Medieval Rethink Cultural Center by QUAD studio Wins the Silver A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
QUAD studio honored for architecture, building and structure design by the international grand jury of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2020 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category for Medieval Rethink Cultural Center by QUAD studio. The recognition forms part of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Medieval Rethink Cultural Center
Medieval Rethink was a response to a private commission to build a Cultural Centre for a small undisclosed village in the Guangdong Province, which dates back 900 years to the Song Dynasty. A four storey, 7000 sqm development is centred around an ancient rock formation known as the Ding Qi Stone, a symbol of the origin of the village. The project’s design concept is based on showcasing the history and culture of the ancient village whilst linking the old and the new. The Cultural Centre stands as a reinterpretation of an ancient village and a transformation into contemporary architecture.
About QUAD studio
QUAD studio is a group of architects, designers, and thinkers operating within the field of architecture, urbanism, interior design, landscape design, product design, research and development. QUAD studio believes there is a resurgence of the Renaissance where people want more from architects than just architecture. People are in search of a holistic design narrative that allows designers to blur the lines between different design disciplines, the Collective Polymath. Innovation also comes from cutting edge technology. QUAD studio is a lab for exploration, a place to experiment different design possibilities, artists are invited to share and bounce their innovative ideas.
Award Record
This recognition makes QUAD studio a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award
The A' Architecture Design Award is an international architectural design competition recognizing good architectural designs by best architects worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to architectural design studios, building contractors, structural engineering firms and architecture and design consultants from all countries. Typical entries include skyscrapers, museums, residential buildings, commercial complexes, educational institutions and religious structures. The awarded architectural projects are published at https://desingers.org/design-category/architecture
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://desingers.org/98029
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/98029
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!98029
- Laureate Profile: https://desingers.org/d/262544
- Further Information from the Laureate: http://issuu.com/rofmedia/docs/ribazine_02_20190708_bc?fr=s
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Medieval Rethink Cultural Center
- Function
- Cultural Center
- Category
- Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture
- Colors
- Dark Green, Black, Cadet Blue, Light Slate Gray and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- QUAD studio
- Country
- Hong Kong (China)
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2019 - 2020
- Design ID
- #98029
Credits
- Team
- Wai Tang, Kelvin Chu, Landy Liu, Wesley Fung and Samuel Tam
- Image Credits
- Image #1, Pictury Image #2, Submarina Image #3, SAN CG Image #4, SAN CG Image #5 SAN CG
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The cultural centre becomes the new destination for villagers to congregate and to socially interact. Here, opportunities arise to great a truly cultural contemporary icon inspired by a historical monument that links old and new. We make a focus in the cultural centre. An object that is the primary function, a multipurpose hall that most villagers will congregate in large social events. Other functions are clustered around the object that naturally creates internal streets and courtyards that are filled with an abundance of natural landscape.
- Inspiration
- Medieval Rethink was an opportunity to recreate a medieval environment in a contemporary cultural setting. The narrative and design approach of the cultural centre has been extensively explored previously. Located in the norther province of Guangdong, this Contemporary Cultural Centre will not only showcase the history culture of the 900-year-old village, it will also function as a cultural exhibition centre and will attract thousands of visitors from all over the region.
- Research
- The design team has gone through a thorough research on the context and the history of the Zhu Pu Village, the study has become a very influential part on building a narrative on the project and later being represented through the design of the spaces. Exploration of the existing village - Walking around the village, inspired by the scale and how man and nature exist in harmony. Beautifully preserved, the village of Zhu Pu dates to the Song dynasty. With its organic concentric planning, it relates itself to many medieval Chinese urban planning principles.
- Challenge
- Cultural Differences - The cultural centre was designed for the villagers as their space for social interaction. To design the centre, designers had to meet with the villagers and discuss their personal needs for this project. Apart from understanding their culture, the main difficulties come in syphering all their needs and wants information into a design. Only when one to understand their culture can then try to rethink the whole idea of what a cultural centre means to the villager. The Abstraction – Abstracting the village into the design took a lot of patience and work so that the final design truly depicts the chosen narrative.
- Realization and Technology
- Firstly, designers break down the village into components of Positive and Negative space. Defining functions as objects and stitching these objects together to natural courtyards of green space. They make a focus in the cultural centre. An object that is the primary function, a multipurpose hall that most villagers will congregate in large social events. Other functions are clustered around the object that naturally creates internal streets and courtyards that are filled with an abundance of natural landscape.
- Operation and Interaction
- As the ground floor is an active floor with many active functions and visitor, the cultural centre is designed to free up the ground plane as much as possible to allow for pedestrian traffic.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in August 2017 in an undisclosed Village in Fujian, China.
- Specifications
- Approx. 7000 square metre GFA
- Keywords
- cultural centre, abstraction, guangdong, songdynasty, dingqistone