* Text Description Provided By The Architects
With the development of social economy and technology, people put forward higher and more refined requirements for the quality of living environment. The peak of the overall construction of the society has passed, and a large number of buildings built in the past 30 years are facing the problem of how to further update and optimize to meet the current and future more personalized needs. Therefore, in the new era, how to use effective revitalization strategies to inject more vitality into the innovation and upgrading of existing buildings, stimulate the deep potential of the architectural space environment, and make it play a more positive role in real life is undoubtedly an extremely urgent task of The Times faced by the majority of architects. Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital (hereinafter referred to as Provincial Hospital) was founded in 1946. The main hospital is located at No. 106 Zhongshan Second Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou. The hospital has a floor area of nearly 230,000 square meters. Provincial medical restaurant building was built in 1993, was originally designed as a preparation building, in 2004 added a two-story semicircular steel structure as a dining space, transformed into a restaurant building. After the renovation of the restaurant building, restricted by the original spatial structure, there are defects and deficiencies in the use of traffic organization, safe evacuation, use function, storey limit, structural safety and other aspects, which not only affect the use function but also affect the overall environmental quality. After the renovation in 2004, the restaurant building after 16 years of use, after functional changes and the replacement of the external built environment, its function and space can not keep up with the development needs of the provincial hospital, so the leadership team decided to do a comprehensive overall upgrade. Our team officially accepted the task of upgrading the provincial hospital restaurant building in May 2019, before which we had carried out more than a year of research on the overall space environment of the provincial hospital, in order to improve the quality of the overall space environment of the provincial hospital. The research content includes the status quo of the overall functional layout and optimization countermeasures, the overall optimization countermeasures of the external environment space, the status quo of the pipeline system and optimization countermeasures, etc. Through a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the status quo, the foundation for the future overall upgrade and update. Based on solid overall spatial research, the design team considers the current situation and goal of the provincial medical restaurant building renovation, thinking "What can architects do for society? " This profound professional problem, guided by the "six types of architecture", returned to the essence of architecture, proposed the revitalization strategy of "weak architecture, strong atmosphere", successfully passed the program report, planning approval, design review, and finally construction during the epidemic period, and was completed and put into use in December 2021. After the renovation, the provincial medical restaurant building has been unanimously recognized and highly praised by the owners, the majority of medical staff, the majority of patients who come to see a doctor and their families. From the perspective of the built environment, it not only provides a high-quality relaxed and comfortable dining environment for provincial medical staff, but also makes a positive contribution to the improvement of the overall spatial environment quality of provincial medical staff, and also provides an effective innovation strategy for the renovation of old buildings. It reflects the team's exploration and efforts in thinking about "how architecture can create a more valuable space environment for society and people" (Figure 4-Figure 6). The design uses simple and bright architectural image and clear technical means to realize the spiritual pursuit of dialogue beyond time and place, in order to pay tribute to the spiritual pursuit of architecture advocated by Louis Isadore Kahn. The external space of the provincial hospital is an organically connected whole. Its planning and design elements such as spatial structure, functional layout, transportation organization, landscape construction, humanistic atmosphere and spatial experience interact with each other to form an external public space system of the provincial hospital. Due to the long-term and gradual unorganized renewal, the external public space of the provincial hospital appears cramped and broken, and the integrity is missing, which gradually loses its personality and characteristics, becomes negative, and does not adapt to the current and future development needs. The renovation of the provincial medical staff restaurant building is an important opportunity to fundamentally improve the quality of the space environment. The design is based on the solid research and analysis of the dialogue between the work and the place and the space integration as the goal and strategy, and the guidance of "six types of architecture", to formulate an overall optimization design strategy. The focus of the design should not only deal with the internal function of the renovation of the restaurant and the optimization and improvement of the traffic space, but also improve the environmental quality of the external public space of the provincial hospital through the overall optimization design. After its completion, the restaurant building not only integrates well into the overall external public space environment of the provincial hospital, becoming an active member of the external public space system, but also activates the vitality of the overall space at a deep level, showing a positive dialogue atmosphere in the place, and forming a good dialogue relationship between seeing and being seen (FIG. 7-9). Through the upgrading and renovation of the provincial medical restaurant building, a "weak building" is used to strengthen the overall space and place atmosphere. The building entity recedes as the background of the external public space, reflecting the continuous, extended and gradual architectural characteristics, and providing a comfortable and pleasant high-quality external public space environment for the majority of users. Here you can experience the green tree breeze, sky light cloud shadow, feel the seasons change, heal tired body and mind. In the old hospital with high density in the old city, how to create a safe, efficient, comfortable and pleasant overall space environment for users that can not only adapt to specific functional needs, but also conform to the current social trend of increasing the quality of the space environment is my goal. In the process of upgrading and rebuilding the physical space environment, the sense of materiality and form is important, but how to make the space transcend the entity and present the spiritual characteristics is what I pay more attention to. In the environment of the provincial hospital site, the existing buildings, with their complex functions and huge volume, constitute an absolute advantage in the external space, while the external space is squeezed into sporadic fragments, and the spatial elements such as squares, green Spaces, shrubs, paths are separated and the whole is broken. Through systematic research, I found that "nature" can be used as an effective integrating factor to repair separated elements. By introducing and highlighting "nature", the architectural entity can give up the monopoly status of the space subject and become an organic part of the external public space of the environment. The old and new buildings, the shade and cool wind, the sky and the clouds, and the four times change, become the protagonist of the external public space of the provincial hospital again (FIG. 10), they complement each other and complement each other. Creating a friendly, natural, relaxed and pleasant environment atmosphere, effectively alleviating the majority of medical workers, patients and their families in the hospital environment of tension and anxiety. The transparent glass facade facing the courtyard of the provincial hospital presents a super-wide landscape vision, showing the passage of time and the changes of light and shadow in the outdoor and indoor Spaces. Through this facade design, the overall space environment reflects the characteristics of continuity, extension and gradual change (Figure 11). For the medical staff who eat here, it not only provides a relaxed and pleasant dining space, but also a transfer station that can let him feel nature, put down pressure, and recharge the body and spirit. Through the transparency of the building, the warm and relaxed atmosphere in the space is transmitted to every corner of the external public space, so that the whole hospital is covered with a gentle and warm veil (Figure 12). The renovation of the Provincial Medical restaurant building in 2004 has added a semicircular two-story steel structure on the west side of the 6-story main structure to supplement the dining space. However, due to its original traffic, fire protection, functional and structural defects and other problems have not been fundamentally improved, so this transformation needs to remove the semi-circular structure of the rear frame, transform the semi-circular volume into five floors, and add an evacuation staircase and sightseeing elevator to meet the current and future personalized needs. The reconstructed fifth floor still adopts a semi-circular volume, with a rounded attitude, welcomes the sight from all directions of the inner courtyard, forming a visual focus, and strengthening the continuous, extended and gradual characteristics of the overall space. 0m×4. The new five-story semicircular volume, with its transparent glass facade, is intended to highlight the 180° view of the building facing the inner courtyard. After multi-scheme comparison and multi-angle research, the semi-circular glass surface is decomposed into 2. 0m×4. 5m flat rectangular glass units, which are installed in dislocation with each other to form rich texture levels. With the change of seasons, the row upon row of glass units present extremely rich and delicate architectural expressions under different conditions of solar illumination and indoor and outdoor lighting, showing a vivid form with life vitality: the glass is generally transparent when the building is backlit, and the indoor activities and scene atmosphere spill into the outdoor public space. Reflecting the continuous dialogue context of the inner courtyard space; The afternoon sunlight begins to climb on the glass, and the sky light is reflected by the glass surface from different angles. Each glass presents different light and shadow effects. On the whole, there is a unified texture and dramatic change tension, which is wonderful (FIG. 13). When the night falls, the light begins to shine, the hard glass fades cold and becomes a crystal clear warm crystal, changing the mysterious characteristics of the unpredictable (Figure 14), creating a warm and relaxed environment, lighting a beacon of hope in provincial medicine, conveying the spiritual power of the place beyond the physical entity (Figure 15). In my book Six Styles of Architecture, I summarized the traditional experience, the creative cases of modernist masters and contemporary diversified architecture and their inspirations, and proposed six creative techniques and techniques of "continuity, extension, gradual change, abstraction, season and flow" to guide the practice of architectural creation. The transformation of the provincial medical restaurant building is guided by the "six types of architecture", and has carried out an all-round attempt and exploration in the aspects of function optimization, traffic integration, structure improvement, space construction, and shape design. The preparation building designed in 1992 is a construction drawing drawn by hand, with a clear structure and strict logic. After nearly 30 years of use, the old building can not meet the current and future needs in terms of structural safety and seismic performance. Therefore, in the process of renovation and design, the main structure of the building was evaluated for safety, and then the beams, plates and columns were strengthened in a comprehensive way according to the functional requirements. After the renovation, coffee room and flower shop are introduced into the restaurant building. At the same time, various types of catering services such as optional restaurants, cafeterias, a la carte restaurants and private rooms are set up in different buildings, providing a safe, hygienic, efficient and comfortable dining and rest place for all employees. In addition, through the use of double-layer insulating glass, the building can reduce the energy consumption of air conditioning as much as possible under the premise of meeting the requirements of green energy saving. The environment after completion is pleasant and comfortable; At the same time, through the improvement of the traffic system, the sightseeing ladder and the fire escape ladder are added to increase the safety and convenience; The above specific measures are practical "tools". With the "instrument", we present the "whole picture of the building". Architecture is the unity of materiality and spirituality, in which materiality is a relatively dominant element, which is often presented through the aspects of shape, function, space, structure, etc. It is relatively easy to learn and master, and is also the most basic attribute of architecture. Good architecture often presents good material characteristics through proper design techniques; At the same time, through the full display of materiality, people's subjective experience and spiritual feelings are well reflected; Therefore, the materiality of architecture is a necessary medium leading to spirituality. Although the spirituality of architecture is conveyed by the materiality of architecture, human experience is the way to embody the spirituality of architecture, that is to say, there is no spirituality of architecture without people. We use these technical measures and means of "building six types" to achieve the stock optimization and overall quality improvement of the provincial medical restaurant building, the most important purpose is to explore the metaphysical "building way" through the optimization and improvement of the space environment, which is the distillation and expression of spirituality. So it is interesting to return our focus to the "human" level. At present and in the future for a long time, social development requires us to pay more attention to the fine use of urban internal space and comprehensively improve the environmental quality of architectural space. Through the physical "instrument", the spirit of the architectural space environment is highlighted, so that people can more easily appreciate the artistic conception created by the beautiful living space environment. For the renovation of the restaurant building in the Province of Medicine, the spirit we intend to convey is a safe, convenient, comfortable and warm space experience, feeling like "home" as relaxed and comfortable medical and working environment atmosphere, and "continuous, continuous, gradual, abstract, season, flow" this "six architectural patterns" is an effective way to help us achieve this goal. This is what I want to describe as "the whole picture of architecture". In this cognitive system, the materiality of architecture, the subject of use (human), and the spirit of architecture are mutually fulfilling relations, and their joint action presents a more comprehensive overall appearance of architecture. This kind of cognition is more in line with the ultimate goal of Louis Kahn's architectural spirituality, so I regard architecture as a medium to understand the world and express thoughts, and a path worth dedicating one's life to. The renovation of the Provincial Hospital Restaurant building was the beginning of such an interesting exploration, which seemed to open a door for me to see more possibilities beyond my original cognitive system. com