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Project Overview

Phoenix Valley in Wujin is a public Theatre, Film and Arts Centre. Run as an international design competition in 2009 and completed in 2013, studio505 diverged from the brief by preserving and diverting an existing canal deep into the site allowing water to become an active element that has seemingly ‘carved’ out the valley from within a green roofed mountain mass. This single gesture gave the project its name, creating an internalised yet outdoor courtyard space sheltered from roads, facilitating a children’s playground, an amphitheatre and access to all the parts of the centre from within the central valley.

The project is a catalyst for improved China/ Victoria relationships with various Premiers, and official delegations visiting the site, engendering exchange in ongoing cultural events, partnerships and operational relationships. Winning numerous local architecture and construction prizes the project has formed a means of cultural exchange with Melbourne through ongoing knowledge sharing. Currently there are discussions to form sister precincts between Melbourne’s Federation Square and Phoenix Valley to better serve this cultural exchange with our Sister State. The project has improved amenity, improved local value of real estates and formed a highly regarded and awarded hub for the local community.

Project Commissioner

Wujin District People’s Government

Project Creator

studio505

Team

Dylan Brady - Director
Dirk Zimmermann - Director

Project Brief

This Cultural Centre is a 65,000m2 complex housing a series of integrated but independently run programmes and functions consisting of 4 cinemas; a 1000 seat Grand Theatre capable of both traditional Chinese opera and radical digital immersive performances; a five storey flexible Art Gallery; a Youth Palace (school/alternate learning centre) accommodating 4000 students; an occupation experience hall, where children can role play at various professions; a sports and dance hall; a selection of retail, café and food facilities and a connected and permeable children’s playground and landscaped courtyard.

The complementary mix of programme has been carefully tailored, folded, molded and inserted into the building under a single pattern planted green roof. This has been achieved through a process of occupation, of in-habitation, carving out and claiming of regions, colonising of niches, of caves and hollows excavated from within the simple, powerful geological form of the overall complex. Each of the spaces is accessed from the central valley, and has been carefully considered to ensure engaged interaction between the user groups. The Youth Palace is a pirenasean space that takes students past related and unrelated classes in order to promote innovation and lateral learning.

Project Innovation/Need

Phoenix Valley was imagined as a cultural building - our design and integration of disparate programme has created a new cultural heart to the city. Studio505 embedded within the buildings form and materials and functions the very best of Melbourne thinking in sustainability, as tested and proven in our design of Pixel, the world’s greenest building. We were able to create a public facility that not only met the requirements of the brief, but exceeded them in many ways; in reducing energy consumption to become a Chinese exemplar; in creating a landscaped and beautiful precinct that attracts dancers; wanderers, tourists and people actually engaged in the function; by creating a building that generates an identity and character for Wujin ; reaping increased values to adjacent residential; and by creating a globally recognised project that Wujin can market and brand itself upon. The building not only serves its community, occupants and users sustainably, by creating low carbon, low energy, highly efficient surroundings, the building has generated a complex, highly engaging architectural space that will drive enthusiasm and curiosity in generations of people.

Design Challenge

Primary to the design challenge in China and in particular with a project as ambitious as Phoenix Valley, is ensuring that the architecture, the vision and the systems and finishes are built an appropriate standard. The team ensured in the design and documentation that we provided bi-lingual, comprehensive documentation to the local Design Institute and contractors. We maintained our engagement in the process up to and beyond that normally expected of an international designer. We positioned a permanent staff member on the ground in Wujin, in order to ensure best practice operations and construction were employed. We engaged at a grass roots level with our local architects, engineers and consultants, seeking always to educate and guide whilst listening and learning about the local conditions and rules that we would need to innovate with.
Our commitment to the project then extended to the construction phase - we worked on site with the actual manufactures, installers and workers to ensure that they understood the important design lines - the key drivers. Attention and commitment and effort by all were rewarded with an extremely high quality outcome.

Sustainability

Within its 65,000m2 studio505 have embedded technologies, thinking and design processes developed and tested in the much smaller Pixel building. These comprise of Green Roof technology, Built-In Photovoltaic (BIPV) and Solar Thermal arrays, Natural Ventilation, LED lighting and sophisticated water management systems including thermal heat exchangers with the re-claimed water flowing through and beneath the project.

Blending in with the surrounding parks, the roof is ‘green’ planted following the patterns of the facade, with species that create an active and integrated seasonal flowering variety that flows down the walls. This roof provides significant benefits in terms of insulation, water collection and filtration and the reduction of a heat island effect.

The project has achieved certification of the maximum 3 stars available under China 3 Star rating which is the equivalent of Greenstar 5/6 star, or LEED Gold. The thinking developed here in Victoria has given the project an enviable list of innovations and performance benchmarks that Wujin had never before been able to achieve- the ongoing relationship we have maintained with many of the suppliers and clients has led to more projects in other parts of the country- leading and designing sustainable solutions tailored to local conditions that actually work.

Architecture - Mixed Use - Constructed

This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow. 
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