The design Buhou refers to the renovation project of the backyard of Sichuan's chief secretary's office during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). [Photo provided to China Daily]
The conceptual redesign of a historic Sichuan backyard space wins renowned Chengdu architect prestigious architectural award.
When designer friends in Sichuan province meet 52-year-old Liu Weibing, they ask for a photo with his trophy awarded by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Few people get to see a trophy from the AIA, a top-notch organization in the international architectural design community, said Zhang Xianjin, a senior professor from the school of architecture at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, Sichuan, who posed for a photo with the trophy.
On Dec 1, the Peninsula Hotel on Shanghai's Bund hosted the 2018 AIA Shanghai Design Awards Ceremony - the first time the event has ever been held in China. Over 360 architects and critics attended the historic occasion.
The winning awards were judged by an international jury comprised of leading architects, critics, academics and theorists. Topping the list were American-German architect, Regine Leibinger, and American architectural art critic, Reed Kroloff.
From the 160 works reviewed, 27 finalists were selected to compete for the awards for Public Architecture, Commercial Architecture, Housing, Heritage Architecture, Unbuilt Innovation, Master Planning and Interior Spaces.
Liu, a famous architect from Chengdu, was nominated for his design, Buhou. After nine anonymous judges from the AIA jury voted, it won the Unbuilt Innovation award.
Liu Weibing (center) was nominated for his design, Buhou. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Liu has been a designer for 30 years.
In 2012, his design for the reconstruction of two mountainous villages in Dujiangyan, which were damaged in Sichuan's Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, won the Global Human Settlements Planning and Design Award at the Global Forum on Human Settlements held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Now he has another prestigious accolade to his name.
Winning a prize from the AIA is something great, it's recognition of the designer, said Jeff Dayu Shi, a well-known American designer in Beijing who has won many major international design awards, including the Red Dot Design Award four times in a row from 2009 to 2012.
Through its design, Buhou is believed to have represented a refreshing sense of urban space and emotional resonance to the historical and cultural city of Chengdu and embodied the history of the old city.
"Architecture should be like a box of time. When you go in, you can feel the memories of the past, the fresh life and the future yearning," Liu said.
The name of the design refers to the backyard of Sichuan's chief secretary's office during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Located at No 21 Buhou Street in the Jinjiang district of Chengdu, it was the residence of Sun Zhi, Sichuan's chief secretary.
A bird's-eye view of the design. [Photo provided to China Daily]
In the first half of the 20th century, Xiong Kewu, a veteran of the Kuomintang, lived there. Next to his residence was the famous Chengdu Grand Theater and the Rong Paradise Restaurant, known as the signature restaurant of time-honored Sichuan cuisine.
In the 1950s, it became the seat of the Sichuan Federation of Literary and Art Circles and its affiliated provincial writers, artists, musician associations and the editorial department of the well-known Stars poetry magazine.
Sichuan's nationally acclaimed writers, such as Sha Ting, Ai Wu, Sun Jingxuan and Zhou Keqin worked and lived there for a long time, said Yu Xuntan, an 88-year-old poet and writer.
With an area of 1,000 square meters, the site had been the three-storey canteen of Sichuan Daily for about 20 years when Liu was asked by the newspaper to design it into a combination of tradition and modernity in 2015.
"Soon after I got the task, I ended up on a trip to Europe for more than 20 days. During the trip, I was thinking of the design all the time," Liu said.
Its west and east elevation. [Photo provided to China Daily]
"I believe architecture has a soul only when it is combined with culture. In the redesign of existing buildings, we should think about the choice and model the space from the perspective of history and humanity. The new space created by the design should be a continuation of the spirit of the place, or the value of the place is lost," he said.
Although No 21 Buhou Street had witnessed reconstruction many times, its space structure and five towering ginkgo trees in the inner yard remained.
Retaining the original space structure and the trees meant retaining the "box" to accumulate time, said Liu who restored old trees and a pool to the space in his design.
For the three-storey, frame-based building renovation design, Liu used the second and third flat roofs to add three outdoor tea bars and cafes in a picturesque disorder, and connected the original steel ladder to the downstairs yard. That way, the middle and lower gardens correspond with each other, making the traditional "yard" extend into three-dimensional space.
Before Liu designed Buhou, it had a multilayered frame and gable slope top. He gave up the standard gable slope and the traditional single drainage function of the slope roof, instead building the inclined roof with a multifaceted diamond-like appearance.
Equally, rather than covering the outside with black bricks, typical of that period, or simple red bricks of the old factory, he introduced steel and glass to the street-facing elevation to reveal bamboo in the courtyard.
