CROX: Winner of World Design Awards 2022. Yuhang District, located in the north of Hangzhou, is the birthplace of Liangzhu culture. The headquarters of Nabel, the leading brand in Chinese ceramic tile, is also set up here. As a brand culture exhibition hall，CROX reflects the historical background and try to integrate the surrounding mountains, so that culture can form an advanced and natural building by shaping like ceramics.

Ceramics have been a symbol of civilization shaped by fire and clay since ancient times. Based on the original relationship between the map and the bottom of the industrial park, the formal logic of the building is highly integrated with the surrounding landscape.

The building is based on a square, and the space hopes to echo the spirit of ‘Cong’, ‘Cong’ is one of the ‘six tools’ recorded in Zhou Li, ‘six tools’ were the sacrifice ritual which is used by Liangzhu area to carry its own belief system. The inspiration of architectural configu ration is spread out from ‘the round sky and square earth’, and the shape of the mountain, which is surrounded by the super mountain, the Half mountain and the Linping mountain, extracting to form a flowing curve and shape. It has become a kind of freehand sloping roof. Under the large roof of the building, it meets the functional practicability and the economic demand of construction. The formal logic is more integrated with the height of remote mountain.

The outer surface of the building is assembled by the large-scale ceramic slab. The slab based on ‘SIMM-TEC’ technology that developed and produced by Nabel. This is the first time in China to use the large-scale ceramic slab for exhibit projecting to establish a new using standard for the construction industry. The overall facade is composed of a large ceramic slab and transparent curtain wall. The vertical solid plate and glass curtain wall highlight the topographical sense of the building surface and form a fascinating and orderly body. The overall appearance is like a ridge of mountains on the ground. The pool surface designed in the front forms a beautiful view like a mirror. People follow the winding path and enter the room through an open entrance. In front of them, they will see the light scattering through the gap of the arc ceramic wall. The lines on both sides indirectly introduce light, forming a ceremonial space, which brings a suggestive nature for visitors to enter the peach blossom garden. In the art exhibition hall with different ceramic cultures, you can feel the rich contents of the exhibition. You can follow the arc stairs to the upper internal garden, feeling the natural atmosphere in the quiet atrium better, and form a coherent experience of the building’s internal and external integration, achieving a comprehensive cultural building which integrates space, culture and industry.

Project Details
Firm
CROX

Architect/Designer          
C.R. LIN

Project Name
Raised Valley: Nabel Technology & Culture Experience Center

World Design Awards Category
Mixed-Use Architecture Built

Project Location
Hangzhou

Project Team   
C.R. Lin, Tu Po Chun, Li Bentao, Sun Lidong, Darcy, Liu Hui, Zhang Xiu, Zhou Tianye, Gu Bowen, Zhou Chenyuan, Huang Peigeng, Ale, Zhu Sihan, Zhang Ding

Country
China

Photography ©Credit
©Highlite Images, Threeimages

CROX

Since CROX was founded by C.R. Lin in 2008, we have won multiple awards, including WAF, Andrew Martin International Interior Design Award and IDA etc. In 2016, we were entitled as the curator of Milan Triennial Exhibition and Venice Biennial Exhibition, an innovative and academic approach in Architecture Art. We specialize in crossover design, projects contain master planning, architecture, interior, furniture design, extending to exhibition curator and art work creation. In CROX we believe design expands from the artistic feeling towards the conversation between humanism and nature. We bringing the intangible and organic imagination to achieve new life experiences.