The ancients of China once said: History is like a mirror to help us better learn ourselves.

Nanjing is the ancient capital of China. We would like to emulate the ancients to study history and to activate this region by learning from the past. 

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Concept

"The Mirror" as it literally means, is a building that can reflect the bustling scene of the street. By using the principle of a spherical mirror to get a broader view, the ancient buildings combined with contemporary street scenes are reflected on the surface of the building, forming an interesting, interactive, and experiential building. In the process of reflection, the ancient and contemporary scene appears as if time and space have merged. The building is the highest point in the area, and the reflectors will make the building shine brightly, becoming the star of the Pingshi Street area.

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Functions

We transformed the historic building into a homestay-based comprehensive business format. The ground floor is retail and restaurant. The third to fifth floors are B&Bs. The gallery bridge on the roof is a modern interpretation of the Moon Bridge, providing a place to overlook Ping Shi Street and an open-air exhibition. The second floor is for commercial offices. We divide the space into shared office space and centralized office space to meet different office needs. We opened up the space on the ground floor to adapt with flexible functions, providing different scales and necessary scenes for different activities.

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Activities

After studying the new planning scheme of Ping Shi Street, we found that this area lacks an open space, deep into the block, which can provide both local citizens and tourists with spontaneous activities. We opened up the ground floor and combined it with the open space to the south of the building to create a flexible and beautiful civic activity space. We designed a set of public facilities that can be freely transformed. Through different combinations, this group of public facilities can be changed into stages, tables and chairs as well as selling space according to demand. This provides a different use scenario and new vitality for the open space on the ground floor.

Stage scene: Master in folk. Many folk masters hidden in the city are equipped with extraordinary skills, and some folk culture that will soon be lost also needs to be recognized by more people and passed on. This requires us to provide a more down-to-earth platform for these folk skills to be seen by more people. The open space on the first floor can organize regular folk skill shows during holidays or rest days, so that more visitors can learn about Chinese traditions.

Table and chair scene: Tables and chairs can not only provide visitors with rest but also become props for activities. For example, these tables and chairs can provide possibilities for workshops on intangible cultural heritage. Every weekend, you can invite handicraft workshops in the Ping Shi Street area to hold a handicraft camp for all ages.

Selling scene: The market is a traditional and effective selling scene. The venue can host a market every weekend. Nearby businesses and local citizens can sign up. The bustling market makes Ping Shi Street even more lively and popular.

Location: Nanjing, China

Concept Design

Time: 06/2022

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