Pingod (Apple) community is a residential project of approximately 500,000 square meters, located on the southern edge of Beijing’s CBD. While working on the master plan, Atelier FCJZ is also commissioned to renovate the existing heating plant on the site for the sales / show room meanwhile serving as a contemporary art museum, temporarily. The mix of commercial and cultural activities is strategic although not entirely unique in Beijing. The facility’s temporality means a very quick and low budget job.
Our design approach involves two interrelated operations: Cleaning up the existing spaces and introducing new architectural objects. Cleaning up is kept minimum. Feathers of the previous industrial function are saved as much as possible out of both economical and aesthetic concerns. The architectural objects, often as perspectival boxes, are placed in locations where new spatial relationship may be required, such as the entrance, where a new indoor-outdoor transition is called for. Other architectural objects may act as window-meeting rooms, stage, reception counter, etc. These objects are coded with different materials, for instance steel grating, and bright colors.
The final result is a playful interaction between the over scaling of the original industrial spaces and the intervention of the inserted
architecture miniatures.