Project

Dingzha, as a famous historical old town in Zhejiang, has been declining due to the change of industries and the siphoning phenomenon of the surrounding metropolis. However, as the government promotes a high quality common wealth demonstration zone in Zhejiang, Dingzha as a pioneer demonstration representative, is in urgent need of a model for industrial and development transformation and a model park landing experience.

The entire design is divided into two major aspects: urban design and architectural design. The urban design starts from the historical development of Dingzha town and its unique local characteristics, and proposes a spatial strategy of ‘One Loop, One Belt, Three Cores and Multiple Points’, turning three transformation points into key spatial cores for creativity, tourism and living, and linking them to a complete walking route to create a complete Dingzha creative work tour loop from a functional perspective.

Faced with the specific phase of renovation, the architectural design strategy is to respect the traces of time, retaining the local architectural character while boldly inserting a new ‘futuristic’ feel. The site of the Dingzha town consists of three parts: the northern soho, the central theatre and the southern granary, with the northern dwelling and the central theatre retaining their original texture for modern architectural translation, while the characteristic southern granary is a 1:1 replica of the overall scale of the building and its internal structural components. The new buildings and the ‘old’ granary co-exist harmoniously, creating a new time memory of the old town.

Dingzha Loop is more than just an individual regeneration of an old town, but a case of old town revitalization that can be drawn upon. It proposes a new direction for many old villages and towns that are also caught in the same development dilemma, and we look forward to more Dingzha 2.0 and Dingzha 3.0 in the future.

Client

Jiashan Yaozhuang Rural Revitalization Development and Construction Co., Ltd.

Program

0.12km2 for conceptual urban design
11,675m2 for architecture design
Mixed-use (Soho, Offices, Retails, R&D, Galleries, Showcase, Hotels, etc.)

Stages

Built

Team

MLA+, Line+, Tongchuang