Lou Dai Mixed Use Cultural Community Master Plan

Loudai is an interesting project, as it was part of the planned growth of a suburb town on the outskirts of Chengdu. What was interesting is that loudai is an ancient town, and one that had many different vernacular styles of architecture. Yet none of the vernacular styles were local to Sichuan. They are in fact vernacular to at least 8 other provinces across China.

History shows that Loudai was a sort of town for political refugees from across China. Hence they built their homes and businesses according to the styles they knew. This diversity has been kept to this day with different ethnic groups, cuisines and handicrafts being present and passed down through the generations.

So our master plan was to increase a large area of Loudai, which ha formerly been a government  rice store complex. The brief was to provide a predominantly residential area with enough commercial and retail space to attract visitors as well as residents. It connects seamlessly with the ancient town and incorporates a large open air opera stage and square.

Providing diversity in the over all plan was helped through the different provincial vernacular styles as they utilise varying street patterns which seamlessly connect different quarters. Which has always been a feature of the ancient loudai street patterns too. During its history Loudai had become a a sizeable town in its own right, however much damage was done during the 1970's, so in effect we helping return the town to it former glory.

Location

Lou Dai, Sichuan, China

GFA

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