Australian Institute of Architects Awards 2014 International Architecture Commendation

Melbourne Design Awards 2014 Gold Winner

IDEA Awards – International Project 2014 Shortlisted

Victorian Premier Design Awards 2014 Finalist

China National LuBan Award 2014 Construction Excellence

China 3 Star Rating for Sustainability 2013 Award Here

WAF Inside Festival Awards 2013 Culture Category – Shortlisted

<p>The project of Phoenix Valley is a government funded and operated Theatre, Film and Arts Centre in Wujin, China. Run as an invited design competition in late 2009, the brief proposed strict zoning for the site which directed all designers to divert an axial canal in a blunt right hand turn across the front of a basic rectangular building footprint and left open the option of a square to the front or the side.</p>
<p>studio505’s winning scheme broke this zoning and instead proposed that the canal was drawn into the site, becoming the active element that has carved out the valley from a green roofed mountain mass. This gesture created a protected internal courtyard space, an internalised yet outdoor central gathering space secure from busy roads, allowing a public space, connection to a public screen and access to all the parts of the centre from within the valley.</p>
<p>Click through to <a href="http://studio505.com.au/work/project/category/4/cultural/phoenix-valley/40.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">studio505 for more detail on this project.</a></p>


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<h6>Concept</h6>
<p>The Phoenix Valley Youth Palace is a deeply cultural project. Located in Wujin, China, Phoenix Valley neighbours the historic area of Yancheng City. Built approximately 2500 years ago, Yancheng City is characterized by its three concentric moats that circle the site. Pieces of more than 1000 rare cultural relics have been unearthed from the Yancheng Site, and to this day it remains a popular and historically important tourist destination to the Jiangsu Province.</p>
<p>Also native to the Jiangsu Province (where Phoenix Valley lies) is the art of random stitch embroidery. Created in the 1920’s by <a href="http://www.suembroidery.com/embroidery_blog/article/12-08/Chinese_crisscross_stitch_embroidery_artist.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Madam Yang Shouyu</a>, random stitch embroidery innovated the traditional methods of  embroidery, featured of “closely needled parallel lines”, by adopting stitch replacing brush and ink, and using threads as colours, which perfectly combines the principles of Western paintings with Chinese embroidery.</p>
<p>Phoenix Valley is an amalgamation of these traditions – a project that is deeply connected to area, society, culture, and people.</p>
<h6>Form + Urban Massing</h6>
<p>studio505’s proposal to redirect an existing canal through the site helped reveal the form of the building. The canal cuts through the site, creating an internal space for protection and focus away from the road, and allowing the building to announce her presence as both a single urban figure, and as a series of independent functional entities within the complex.</p>
<h6>Sustainability</h6>
<p>studio505 embedded technologies, thinking and design processes developed and tested in the much smaller, award-winning <a href="https://wp.db-a.co/projects/pixel-building/">Pixel Building</a>. This comprises Green Roof technology, Built-In Photovoltaic (BIPV) and Solar Thermal arrays, Natural Ventilation, LED lighting and sophisticated water management systems including thermal heat exchangers, with the canal waters flowing through and beneath the project. Phoenix Valley achieved the maximum 3 stars under the China Three Star, equivalent to 5/6 stars under the LEED Gold system.</p>
<h6>Grand Theatre</h6>
<p>The Grand Theatre of Phoenix Valley is one of the key elements to the precinct and the public showpiece of this institution. With a capacity of 1000 patrons, the Grand Theatre is a B-Class traditional staging theatre, with full below-stage decks, and fly towers over 40m high to enable a full Chinese Opera to be staged. It can also be adapted back to form a cinema or conference auditorium space.</p>
<p>Upon entering the main theatre auditorium from either level (stalls or balcony), the inspiration of the origami cicada is revealed in the massive but subtly fluid theatre walls and ceiling elements, which fold and flow around the internal shell. These walls form the acoustic and visual surface of the theatre interior – led strip lights sewn into the fabric bring an incredible clarity to the subtly curving forms.</p>


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The Lotus Building

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Malaysian Academy of Han Studies

Phoenix Valley