Jiande Cultural Center / goa

Site: the Merging Belt Between City and Nature. Jiande is a county-level city in Zhejiang Province, the southern part of the Yangtze River Delta region on the southeast coast of China. Most of the Jiande is covered by hills and mountains, with the Xin’an River winding across. Jiande Cultural Center by GOA sits in the heart of the city. It is a merging belt of the city and nature, nestling between the newly developed Qiandong CBD in the north and a stretch of undulating hills along the Xin’an River in the south. Along the riverbank, the site expands 600m long from east to west and 60-140m deep from north to south, facing a 280m-wide water surface. As a city-scale cultural complex, this project includes four venues: a public library, a museum, and two activity centers that serve different groups of people. The entire project encompasses an area of approximately 31,900㎡ above ground level. Within such a long and narrow site, the large-volume architecture becomes a significant figure of the waterfront landscape at the endpoint of the extending urban axis. This curvilinear site presents both design opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, it maximizes the landscape interface at the water edge. On the other hand, it constrains the program organization of such a city-scale construction. Under such a specific condition, generating a monolithic landmark image and satisfying the functional demands while maintaining its spatial transparency and avoiding visual blockage become the design starting point.