Smart Water Hall

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

SMART WATER HALL

Wau Design

ARCHITECTS
Wau Design

PHOTOGRAPHS
Yu Bai

DESIGN TEAM
Weiying Zhang, Qianping Luo

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Linshou Wu, Xiangying Zhao

LANDSCAPE
Js-lap

STRUCTURE
Zhaozhi Chen

CLIENT
Bewg

CONSTRUCTIONS
Crec

EXHIBITION ORGANIZER
Kastone

LOCAL DESIGN INSTITUTE
Nanjing Municipal Design & Research Institute Co. Ltd.

YEAR
2021

AREA
900 m²

LOCATION
Jiangmen, China

CATEGORY
Exhibition Center

Text description provided by architect.

The Project is located by the Tianshan River in the Pengjiang District of Jiangmen. The exhibition hall serves as a centralized display of the water-control achievements of Pengjiang.

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

It is an important place for external science popularization of water control and environmental protection and for the exchange of water control salons.

In addition, it is also served as the rostrum for the Dragon Boat Race which is held once a year. The Owner hopes to open it to the public on World Water Day after the Spring Festival of 2021.

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

It will take only 8 months from design to completion and opening, including the Spring Festival holiday and one and a half months of indoor exhibition arranging. This is a fast-construct building and a project where construction strategies dominate.

We put forward the construction strategy of "breaking up the whole into parts", decomposing the building into two parts that can be constructed simultaneously:

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

the bottom part is the children's exhibition hall of concrete structure, and is flush with the elevation of the walkway along the river; the upper part is the achievement exhibition hall and the public education room of steel structure and is elevated on the riverbank walkway, connecting to the main square at the road.

Due to the demands of flood control, we adopt the concrete shear wall structure at the bottom pat. The 200m2 children's exhibition hall is within the scope of the demolished old building, leaving a large area of walkway space far away from the riverbank, which can reduce earthwork excavation. In addition, the ready-made construction surface can save construction time.

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

In addition, some functions are set at the elevation of the riverbank, which can reduce the building volume at the elevation of the main square and maintain the intimate sense of scale between the city interface and the river.

The steel structure of standard repeating units is adopted for the upper part. After half a month of pile foundation construction, the prefabricated structural components can just be transported to the site for installation.

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

The column-span is 2.4m with a modulus of 0.6m, which can make the fixed furniture plates, floor tiles, doors and windows, railings, and wall panels very compatible, ensuring good quality control of rapid construction.

The suspended upper part perfectly avoids the original landscape walkways and trees.

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

The upper and lower parts of the building are staggered in-plane and are only connected by stairs, which is the only structural connection.

The elevated building provides a shady rest space for people in the riverside park.

The neatly exposed inclined steel columns are reminiscent of the paddles of a dragon boat, and the suspended upper part looks like a boat floating on the water.

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

The doors of the public education space on the top floor can be fully opened for watching the dragon boat race.

Because we have actively taken the construction steps and cycle into consideration during design, we ensure that the project is completed in a very short time.

Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai
Smart Water Hall
© Yu Bai

One year after its completion, it has become a major popular science education base on environmental governance for children.


Smart Water Hall
construction
Smart Water Hall
construction


Smart Water Hall
demolition
Smart Water Hall
phase. Image Courtesy of WAU Design


Smart Water Hall
road level plan
Smart Water Hall
river level plan
Smart Water Hall
section
Smart Water Hall
public education level plan