Project: "SHIZIKOU" Relics Environmental Conservation and Extension
Award: Mixed Use, Bronze, 2022
Location: Suzhou, China
Architect: Lacime Architects
Client: Suzhou Xingdao Yanlord Real Estate Co., Ltd
This striking exhibition centre and event space encompassing offices, gardens and galleries has been crafted from the ruins of "SHIZIKOU (Lion Mouth)" Prison - once one of China’s three major prisons and an integral part of Suzhou Ancient City. The original prison office building and a section of the prison wall remain and have been sensitively restored and incorporated in to the new space, with the former office building extended in to a cultural exhibition hall.
The roof of the extension building is a natural extension of the original office building's ridgeline while the new structure's façade borrows the office building's original façade form.
Design highlights
A century-old cypress tree near the old building forms the axis of the new construction. The new extension, together with the old office building and the remaining fragments of the prison wall come together to create a new internal courtyard space with the old cypress tree in the middle of the site acting as a 'sundial needle'.
Photo credit: CcreatAR Images
LEAD DESIGNER: SONG Zhaoqing
LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Cicada Landscape Architecture
INTERIOR DESIGN: Shenzhen Horizontal Space Design Co. Ltd