ANCIENT CHINESE CITY RECEIVES A NEW TOILET BLOCK

This new design is located in the central area of Kaiping City, the home of the famous Diaolou clock towers.

This project’s lead architects were Guanqiu Zhong, Gang Song, Zhiyuan Zhu and the design team was made up of Hairui Lin, Ruibo Li，Zhongjing Xu，Tao Hu (intern).

The site of this design is located at the same location of the formerly well known public toilet in Zuzhai Village. The materials which were extracted from the demolition of this old public toilet are being reused in the regeneration of this public space.

The architectural form is intuitively designed so that it is hidden under a large elevated step. This solves the contradiction between the convenience and concealment of the public toilet block.

The selection of the materials was such that a new order was created whilst reusing the old bricks and tiles. This allows for the old materials to continue to write history in a new form. The use of uniform steel wire cage allows the bricks and tiles within the cage to have an extremely open and free organizational setup.

The whole construction process of the wall follows the rule of gravity. The lower the weight which the upper cage needs to bear, the greater the freedom of the masonry. More tiles, broken bricks, old teapots and other special materials are used, and more hollows are used as a method to make the brick walls more transparent. When the sun rises or sets, the sunlight penetrates through the cracks of these brick walls and falls on the ground or the corner of the wall, becoming a little golden spot.

The materials used bear the memory of the past site.The architect hopes to put them into the new building in a fragmented form, so that the whole site can still find some ordinary and moving details about the old time after renewal.

Via Archdaily | Photos Siming Wu & Space of Tangkou