Shan Tang “Forsome Fair” Ancient House Renewal Plan
——Renovation of “The Lady’s Building”

The project locates in an ancient house on Shan Tang Street Suzhou. It’s part of the “Forsome Fair” Ancient House Renewal Plan of Suzhou Design Week 2022. As the first exhibition space of “Six Records of A Floating Life-Kun Opera”, “The Lady’s Building” , which is a small private house-garden located on one side of the whole house system, is going to be an opera experience space as well as an intangible cultural heritage exhibition center. The renovation design tries to evocate the value of traditional space by integrating contemporary quality and experience into this ancient building.

The ground floor space is relatively high and open, the wooden beams on ceiling is well preserved. As the entrance hall, the space is defined as an experience space of life aesthetics with the function of meeting spaces and tearooms. At the time of Kun-Opera show, the space also needs to be changed into a performance scene. This requires the space to be flexible and variable. The design installs a flexible partition system following the grid formed by ceiling wooden beams. Translucent rice paper glass partitions and bamboo curtains are set separately on two directions on plan, creating 4 flexible exhibition spaces and tea rooms. Facing the garden, when the rice paper glass partitions is closed，a neutral opera stage background is created; When the partitions are opened, an inviting flowing exhibition space with multiple layers is shown.

The upper floor ceiling is low for the reason of existing AC equipment height, the old wooden structure frames and slope roof is hidden behinds the gypsum board ceiling. As conventional practices, by removing the ceiling, we can get complete view of the roof, but this will bring difficulty to construction and AC equipment. Actually as an ordinary Chinese traditional civilian residence, the historical value of the wooden structure itself is not that remarkable, however, the characteristic it gives the space as an cultural and structural element is more important. Rather than completely shown in the space, we choose to reveal the wooden frame and roof partly by overlapping with the abstract white cubic ceiling volumes. This brings more space on vertical direction, also break the juxtaposition relationship between old and new, creating new perceptions of the traditional structure, providing new space features to this ancient building. Abstraction and fragments is an expression of entirety, just like the rhetoric of opera and literature which give space for imagination, exactly response the background theme of this project——an immersive Kun-Opera experience in a space spanning time.

Project Name:
Shan Tang “Forsome Fair” Ancient House Renewal Plan——Renovation of “The Lady’s Building”
Architecture Firm: COCOON STUDIO
Contact e-mail: cocoonstudio@126.com
Firm Location: Suzhou China
Completion Year: 2022
Gross Built Area: 200m²
Project location: NO. 53 Tonggui Bridge Xiatang Lane, Gusu District, Suzhou, China
Lead Architects: Wang Weishi
Lead Architects e-mail: 3508436327@qq.com

Photo credits: Wang Weishi ; Sun Jian; Dulux Market Team
Photographer’s website:
Photographer’s e-mail: 38273352@qq.com

Design Team: Wang Weishi ； Wu Ji ； Zhang Zexu
Clients: Suzhou Hao Duan Zheng Media Co. LTD