The main pavilion of the 11th Jiangsu Horticultural Expo is a large-scale public building group with highly complex and diversified functions composed of 43 individual buildings. The original industrial building has a construction area of 12,500 ㎡, and the total construction area after activation and expansion is 52,000 ㎡.
The design takes the site of an abandoned private cement factory as the construction base. Restoring environment, repairing urban functions, creating a new public green space in the city and respect for "ecology" and "heritage" are the primary value orientation during the planning and architectural design process of the main pavilion.
The new building adopts the "light intervention" design strategy, in which groups of small architectural groups are placed in the open space between the reserved buildings, creating a strong contrast between the old and the new, and regenerating the ruins into modern horticultural pavilions full of greenery.
Light intervention, reflected in the "light structure" - the use of prefabricated steel structure system to achieve environmental protection and rapid construction process; "Light image" - slender structural components combined with climbing vertical greening to create a light architectural image, contrasting with the roughness and thickness of industrial buildings; "Light attitude" - boundless green gardens permeate the industrial site, allowing the building to dissolve its image and disappear from nature.
From a lime-burning factory to a space that carries new life, the design and construction of the main pavilion is not to erase the past and forget history, but to leave traces and let history speak. Between the old and the new, today's thinking and creation are also passers-by, and more reverie about beautiful cities and spaces belongs to the future.