Ceramic Art Avenue Taoxichuan Masterplan | David Chipperfield Architects

Situated close to the city centre, the urban heritage of Jingdezhen includes an extensive area with large factory buildings from the local porcelain production in the middle of the 20th century. In a first project phase, the existing buildings in the western part of the site were refurbished and developed to become a lively and public place within the urban fabric. With new functions such as a museum, porcelain shops and a ceramics market, the area forms a connection to its industrial past. In a second project phase, the eastern site is transformed into a campus for the performing arts with colleges, performance venues and further infrastructure. David Chipperfield Architects Berlin developed a master plan for this area, not only preserving and converting the existing buildings for re-use, but also complementing the urban quarter with new buildings to gain a contemporary presence as part of the broader city context.

A pedestrian promenade leading through the centre of the former production site and a boulevard to its west open up the area in north-south direction. Along the boulevard, new public buildings are placed such as a Grand Theatre with two venues to the north and a hotel complex and library to the south, establishing the campus as a new city landmark. The new buildings complement the cultural institutions housed in the historic factory spaces, such as the music academy at the heart of the campus. In addition to these public uses, shops and residential buildings are also provided, including student accommodation.

The public character of the inner-city campus is primarily generated by opening the ground levels of the factory buildings to the general public, extending the public outdoor space into the interior. Due to their physical presence and historic relevance for the local porcelain production, the existing industrial buildings give identity and meaning to this area. Their preservation and continued use are therefore essential for the whole master plan.

Grand Theatre
The main public facilities of the new cultural quarter of Jingdezhen are located on a boulevard on the western side of the area. The northern end is marked by the Grand Theatre, a new brick construction which refers to the traditional materiality of the historic industrial buildings. It accommodates two venues: a classical opera house and a black box theatre.
The auditorium of the opera house is fully lined with walnut veneer and holds 1200 seats. The interior is horseshoe-shaped with three balconies. With this classical European format, the auditorium reflects the meaningful connectedness of audience and performers as one community who jointly experience an artistic performance as a singular, authentic live event as opposed to today’s digital environment. The black box theatre, lined in black wood, allows for various contemporary performance settings due to its flexible and mobile stage area. In addition, the black box theatre can be opened to the outside space - allowing for open-air concerts to be held on the campus.

Both venues of the Grand Theatre are accessed at ground level via a spacious foyer that opens the building towards the boulevard. The horseshoe-shaped auditorium of the opera projects into the foyer where it is enclosed by a timber clad cloaks area and a gallery above. The in-situ concrete architecture of the large-scale foyer roof carried by mushroom columns creates a continuous transition from the trees of the boulevard into the interior of the Grand Theatre. The natural stone floor connects interior and exterior space further. The curved auditorium also emerges externally as a perforated brick volume above the foyer roof, shining like a crown of light at night and lending landmark character to the new venue.

Academy of Music
At the southern end of the campus boulevard, the music academy forms a lively place at the heart of Jingdezhen‘s new cultural district. It is housed in two former factory buildings from the mid-20th century that were once used for ceramics production. The two brick buildings are refurbished and upgraded for their new use. The historic perfo- rated masonry and the windows are repaired in accordance with original materials and details. Due to this sensitive approach to local heritage the industrial atmosphere of the factory buildings is preserved. The corrugated metal roofs are replaced with new tiled roofs to improve thermal and sound insulation.

The larger, northern factory building contains a concert hall with 350 seats, which has been conceived as a recessed nest within the given historic industrial architecture. Daylit and with views into the surrounding area in three directions, the concert hall is the focal point of the academy. In order to meet concert requirements, the roof is com- pletely rebuilt providing more volume for better acoustics. An airy foyer at the centre of the large building serves as main entrance and circulation zone. Service facilities for the audience as well as practice rooms for the academy are housed in new wooden cubes, which are stacked inside the buildings as two-storey structures.
A glass roof with delicate steel girders forms a covered passage at ground level to the smaller southern building, which notably features a historic roof structure made of wooden trunks and ropes. In order to preserve this as a reminiscence of the original use on site, the loads of the roof are transferred to a new steel structure. The new basement levels of the factory buildings, which previously had no basements, contain technical rooms and recording studios. High quality finishes - such as maple veneer, pine wood and mastic asphalt - enhance the industrial appearance of the historic buildings.

Hotel
Located between the Grand Theatre and the Academy of Music, the hotel complex is at the centre of Jingdezhen‘s new cultural district. The complex consists of four separate buildings with a four-star hotel, a five-star hotel and an events venue. A spacious light steel structure connects the buildings at ground level creating communal areas for various public activities.

Each of the hotel buildings contains an inner courtyard with an individually landscaped garden, which can be seen from each of the adjoining hotel corridors via a perforated brick wall, conveying a sense of belonging, tranquility and orientation. The more southerly of the two buildings directly adjoining the boulevard holds prestigious function rooms for a diverse range of public events. A former dormitory building from the 1960s was preserved and integrated into the complex to complement the hotel as an apartment building.

With reference to the historic factory buildings, bricks are primarily used as the local building material for the hotel façades, which thus blend seamlessly into the surroun- ding area. The semi-transparent façades of the function rooms and the perforated balustrades of the hotel balconies act as a filter between private and public areas. The staggered brick columns bring the overall building volume in relation to the human scale.