Stellar Isle by SpActrum
Stellar Isle, covering approximately 1,200 square metres, stands as the most significant new cultural and leisure building in Shaoxing Chaichanglong.
After a five-year renovation, historical buildings from various eras have been preserved, and new buildings and skywalks have been constructed, transforming it into a historical block featuring structures from different periods.
Among these, Stellar Isle is the most crucial and distinctive presence of the new constructions. Stellar Isle is located at the southern end of the central axis of the Chaichanglong plot. The original site’s northern part featured a veranda-style dormitory building from the 1970s and 1980s, with four floors and typical brick and concrete construction.
The verandas and roof terraces on each floor create a dynamic landscape that changes with height. The porch opens to the east, enclosed by a mottled wall around the courtyard. An adjacent classical building’s gable, in a state of disrepair, leans at an angle on one side of the second floor.
From atop the hill, one can see the outline of the old house’s roof and blossoming flowers. On the fourth floor, the surrounding buildings’ damaged roof tiles are visible. The rooftop offers a panoramic view of the crumbling tiles. The building was severely damaged and beyond restoration; after demolition, the site and the land to its south became the location for Stellar Isle.
Conceptually, the designer envisioned it as a superposition of cascading surfaces, termed “Stacking Grounds,” where fragmented planes form overlapping and continuous paths and platforms.
These surfaces spiral upwards around the building’s southern side, creating spaces reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and Wright’s Guggenheim Museum.
They serve not only as passageways but also as multi-storey grandstands where people can gather around the open space on the ground floor. On the fourth floor, to maintain the sense of site density, the stacking ground extends outwards, paying homage to the classical buildings on the north side and becoming a viewing platform with a panoramic view of the entire site and the old town of Shaoxing.
As part of the “Stacking Grounds” concept, the roof is also integrated into these cascading surfaces. At the building’s summit, a continuous, zigzagging form at the east and west edges represents a section of the cascading grounds. On the north side, walls and sliding doors create an enclosed yet open interior space on each floor.
On the east side, the cascading surfaces divide into branching corridors, forming gentle steps and platforms that surround the building and create viewing stands of varying heights on the east and north edges. On the second floor, these surfaces connect to the other side of the Chaichanglong site.
In Stellar Isle, the boundary between the building and the site is blurred. The static experience of interior space is replaced by a free, open, walkable experience with an ever-changing view. The introverted function is replaced by a more dynamic interaction with the surroundings.
The building becomes a multi-storey venue, a three-dimensional plaza, a multi-level gathering space, and a grandstand offering changing perspectives. After the geometrical deduction was completed, the “Stacking Grounds” concept was presented to the structural engineer, who established a straightforward structural logic: adding main beams on either side of the cascading planes, interconnected at the corners.
The new nodes and the cascading surfaces they connect represent a form unique to contemporary Stellar Isle. SpActrum believes this approach is effective in enabling architecture to take form and ensure that architectural forms represent the current social and technical conditions in a contemporary society where logical systems overlap and conflict. Source by SpActrum.
Location: Chaichanglong (Fairy Li), Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
Architect: SpActrum
Chief Architect: Yan Pan
Design Team: Zhen Li, Yimeng Tang, Ying Li, Hao Chen, Xianglong Meng, ShAil Paragkum Patel, Gregorio Soravito, Jinyu Wan
Construction Design: China International Engineering Design & Consult Co..Ltd
Lighting Design: AT. AART Design
Landscape Design: PHOOO Design
Cladding Consultant: COSPACE
Construction Contractors: Hangzhou Xiaoshan Guangyu Architectural Construction Ltd.
Clients: Shaoxing Historical and Cultural City Protection Office, New Century Cultural Tourism
Site Area: 918.8 sqm
Total Building Area: 1658.3 sqm
Building Height: 20.5 m
Status Completed: 2022.12
Photographs: Su Shengliang, ZhuDi@SHADØOPLAY, Courtesy of SpActrum
