Zhang Yan Village is located in Chonggu Town, in the western suburbs of Shanghai.“Preservation, Growth, and Expansion” is our strategy for the renovation and rehabilitation of Zhang Yan Village and other similar villages in China. It does not aim to dominate and reconstruct, nor to repair the old as old. Rather, it strives to follow the development and context of history, to put contemporary needs and consciousness into the village, to reorganize the layout, program the commercial ecology, and to create a dialogue between the new and the old.
Preservation: Old buildings embody the history and culture of the ancient village. They must remain and be improved by means of reinforcement and preservation.
Growth: For the dilapidated buildings whose interior space is no longer available, “cleaning up” the broken parts effectively retain the functional ones. Growing naturally out of its context, the “new” can therefore coexist with the “old.”
Reproduction: The new buildings represent a new era and, specifically, new functions. The museum features several contemporary buildings, constructed on the vacant parts of the site.
Exhibition halls of the Cultural Museum consists of three spaces of unique characteristic with a water patio. All the new constructions are white concrete to respond to the painted light grey of the neighboring walls.