Comment of the Holcim Awards 2005 Jury for Asia Pacific
The innovation of the project is its critical, yet responsive position relative to the issue of aging cities in China.
The scheme successfully demonstrates how new urban spaces can be integrated within the texture of traditional neighborhoods without wholesale demolition or replacement, thus raising awareness of the importance of sustainability.
Also convincing is the ethically sensitive engagement with local residents in order to gain insight into the reality of extended families. With acute attention given to cultural as well as contextual factors, the project provides heightened standards of social and physical space.
Ecologically, the project offers important lessons in energy conservation by suggesting an adaptive revitalization of existing conditions, the use of local materials, and cost-effective detailing. By proposing to reduce the consumption of material resources and pursue the regenerative capacities of design, the project provides sound evidence of how to achieve an economic balance.
Additionally, the scheme has extended relevance in showing how heritage can be conceived as an aesthetic asset in the development of a contemporary expression for urban environments.