A small part of the zhejiang quarries located in China have been transformed into cultural spaces by the renowned studio DnA_Design and Architecture.
The project commanded by the architect Xu Tiantian and his team has aimed revitalize 9 of the more than 3,000 old stone quarries of the county of jinyun , in the province of Zhejiang.
Zhejiang quarries in Jinyun.
Since the previous year, the local administration had in mind to erect social and cultural places that serve both the local population and visitors, and that is why they decided to go to the architecture studio in order to provide another perspective to the zhejiang quarries.
As part of a broader project that seeks to enhance the value of the area and support regional development, a handful of the abandoned quarries they have become part of a public infrastructure that places the historical aspects and cultural heritage of over a thousand years in a new context.
Since each one of the spaces in the rock is different, since they have been formed randomly by the particular mining strategy, and with complex sequences of ruptures towards the outside, these establishments constitute a great potential.
The project was in charge of DnA_Design and Architecture.
North of dinghu village , along a kilometer-long route in a valley that divides two mountain ranges diagonally from southwest to northeast, a country lane lined with small villages cuts through the valley.
There, six of the quarries they are located in the western mountain range and three of them in the eastern one, conceptually interconnected by a path that forms a space of experience.
The quarries offer a library, a performance venue and a meeting area . In addition to that in a future phase of the project, they plan to build an information center directly on the valley road.
The quarries house a library, a performance venue and a meeting area.
On the great steps of the quarry , on the other hand, have been built cabinets with books whose conical shape has become the creation of naturally protected areas for reading.
The quarry 9 , where the theater and a flat stone stage are located, has great acoustic properties thanks to its conical and cavernous shape, while the quarry 10 It has a stepped seating area and wooden details that unify it with the other facilities.
This is the transformation of Zhejiang quarries.
The transformation at the hands of Xu Tiantian and his team has always been carried out with simple means and with the minimum possible interventions in all cases.
“On the one hand, this makes it possible to preserve the original character and, on the other, the design stimulates sustainable and future-oriented development that brings improvements to the stressed ecosystem,” explains the architecture studio, DnA_Design and Architecture.