Xizhimen Port

Apartment for BEIJING SZA ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN CONSULTANT

Port Apartment, as Vanke's long-term rental apartment product for urban youth, it's increasingly appearing in the new and old urban areas of Beijing. The outdated image, depressed tonality, and precipitated vicissitudes of the existing building are no longer in line with young people who are trying to be innovative in the new era. Upgrading the appearance of the old buildings, reshaping the city's image, stimulating the vitality of the community, and providing urban young people with a warm home with a story and a dream become a new topic faced by the project.

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Xizhimen Port by Zhe Wang of SZA Architects

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Apartment by Zhe Wang of SZA Architects

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Zhe Wang of SZA Architects Xizhimen Port

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Zhe Wang of SZA Architects Apartment

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Xizhimen Port Apartment Press Releases

Explore press materials for Xizhimen Port, available in languages such as English.

Xizhimen Port Apartment Media Articles

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Unique Properties

One's residence and clothing represent a person's temperament. Apartments designed to inspire innovative young people naturally need a vibrant, attractive facade. The design organizes the variously spaced exposed beams and columns on the original facade while providing the housing for each room’s AC unit. The new facade was designed as a series of aluminum window frames projecting out from the exterior wall. The scale of the window frames increases at the building corner as if the entire building were twisting on the square as a vivid urban sculpture.

Tags

Architecture renovation, Facade design, Residential, Apartment

Production Technology

The architect made different adjustments to each floor. By adding windows on the east and west side wall at typical floors, a more active urban facade is presented, at the same time, daylighting for each floor is increased by 50%. It provides flexible and private spaces for young tenants within a limited building area. The core of the room unit layout at how to provide customers with a safe and comfortable room space under the premise of limited space.

Design Challenge

The development of the Xizhimen Port Apartments was driven by the challenge of balancing the existing structural conditions of the 10-story building constructed in the 1980s with bold architectural expression, current building technologies, and efficient design. The original building has a large number of reinforced beams and columns exposed on the facade with variant spacing; also the renovated facade needs to find space for the AC unit of each room. So the architect designed an aluminum window frame projecting out from the exterior wall. The abundant aluminum window covers are like a horizontal combination of "Pandora's Boxes", using rhythmic changes to meet the objective functional requirements of the building.

Project Duration

This project completed in Oct. 2018 in Beijing, China.

Operation Flow

The vibrant facade of the apartment was designed to inspire its residents of innovative young people as a new model for urban renewal and architectural renovation. With the development of the city to a certain stage, renewal design is bound to gradually become the main trend of urban development. Xizhimen Port Apartment is an exploration, hoping to gradually practice another way of urban renewal in addition to the point type experimental project and the surface type "large-scale demolition and construction".

Research

This building carries many common memories of the "same song" KTV, which is also one of its old identities. The outdated image, depressed tonality, and precipitated vicissitudes of this existing building are no longer in line with these young people who are trying to be innovative in the new era. Upgrading the appearance of the old buildings, reshaping the image of the city, stimulating the vitality of the community, and also providing urban young people with a warm home with a story and a dream, become a new topic faced by this project.

Inspiration

As a trendy apartment for innovative young people, its appearance needs to jump out of the surrounding old community environment, but can not affect the harmonious coexistence. Inspired by the scenery of the lunar eclipse, the facade is designed with bright colors which bring rich expression. The inside of the window sleeve changes from orange at the top to pale yellow at the bottom, like the color spectrum of the lunar eclipse, and also celebrating Beijing's golden autumn while the Port Apartment opens in October.

Image Credits

Photography: Jin Weiqi

Project Overview

Xizhimen Port Apartment has been a Silver winner in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design award category in the year 2021 organized by the prestigious A' Design Award & Competition. The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.

Silver Recognition

Zhe Wang of SZA Architects was recognized with the coveted Silver A' Design Award in 2022, a testament to excellence of their work Xizhimen Port Apartment.

Zhe Wang of SZA Architects Press Releases

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Xizhimen Port: A Vibrant Urban Apartment for Innovative Young People

SZA Architects Unveils the Xizhimen Port Apartment in Beijing, China, Redefining Urban Living for the Modern Generation

Zhe Wang of SZA Architects Newsroom

Discover outstanding design and award-winning initiatives in the Zhe Wang of SZA Architects Newsroom.