The project won the Grand Prize in the 2020 Beijing "Small Space, Big Life - Excellent Design of Microspace Transformation around People".

Turning the corner, have a smile

Small Space, Big Life - Design of Urban Space between Building 6 and Building 10 of Huixin West Street, Xiaoguan Street

Whether it is the pressure of life or the culture of subtlety, come and go in a hurry, Chinese people rarely have a smile. The crowdedness of the Beijing subway, the hardship of working, and the tension of life can there be a moment of relief. Perhaps it is self-deprecating, perhaps it is humorous.

In addition to being a pleasant and functional public space, can we add some more fun to life?

The starting point of the design is to make strangers turn the corner and have a smile on their faces, and to start every day with a good mood.

A smile is the theme of Huixinli community public space.

The main problems of the site are 4 main points as follows:

1. The subway entrances and exits occupy the sidewalk, and the walking traffic is not smooth.

2. The subway entrance/exit, under-bridge parking lot entrance/exit and community entrance/exit are too close to each other and there is no buffer space.

3. 5 lines of bus parking stations have no harbor, and the traffic is partially congested.

4. The public space between Building 6 and Building 10 is negative and the urban space is indifferent.

The design proposes solutions to the above problems.

1. Traffic integration:

a. Change the subway entrances and exits into sunken ones, empty the sidewalks and reorganize the pedestrian traffic.

b. Set up bus harbors and unclutter the motorway.

c. Set up a bicycle parking lot.

2. Design of sunken public space. Provide green-oriented humanized environment landscape, set up resting seats and provide a place for people to communicate. Set up barrier-free access to facilitate for the people with disabilities.

3. Set up distorting mirror installation art to make the small space interesting and humorous.

4. The historical memory of the city is the basis of cultural context and citizens' cultural self-identification. The rapid development, constant demolition and new construction make us like new immigrants with a sense of strangeness to the city. Although we cannot trace the history of the site Huizhongan, the story of the concrete component factory 30 years ago is still circulating. We branded the region with its concrete technology as part of the cultural context of the region. The 3D printing concrete process is used for the subway entrances and exits, representing the advancement of technology over the times, and special textured shaped concrete blocks are used for the fences, in the memorial of the past. The pavement is made of assembled concrete to show the contemporary theme of energy saving and environmental protection. The story of concrete leaves its urban imprint on this land.

5. Use the existing single-story buildings in the site to provide urban public services, serving as public places such as breakfast stores, cafes, and community rooms. Because the square is thereby been watched, the city's sense of security is improved.

6. Set up a rainwater reservoir under the sunken square to provide water for greening and as a reservoir for urban flood control.

Project Facts

Location：Beijing

Land Area：1900 ㎡

Designed：2020

Completed: 2021

Client：Xiao Guan Street Office

Architect：Liu Xiaochuan, Na Yanxi, Wang Haodong, Zhai Xili