CPI W-18b is a new small-scale commercial building located in the lakeside CPI commercial cluster in Chengdu. The owner hopes the building can seamlessly integrate with the lakeside, trees, and environment while creating a vibrant new commercial usage scenario with a sense of publicness.
The owner has raised questions on how design can better assist commercial scenes in achieving sustainable development and how small-scale commercial buildings can respond to demands for publicness. This presents an opportunity to delve into the relationship between commercial space and public space (publicness) as well as sustainability issues.

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1. Public Space (Publicness):

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CPI, as a "natural wild garden-style" standalone commercial cluster community, connects scattered individual commercial units through the aggregation of "public spaces" such as parks, squares, open spaces, sidewalks, waterfronts, and streets. While the community provides these public spaces, we believe that commercial units should also shoulder some public responsibility. Guests who are tired from walking should not only be able to sit on benches by the roadside but also be able to sit outside each shop. If each unit only pursues maximizing business area or strictly guards its boundaries, then the community will be fragmented, disjointed, and even composed of opposing segments.

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Therefore, we have actively opened the building to the surroundings, forming new usage scenarios by connecting with the outside on each side, supporting and participating in public activities. On the north side, facing the inner lake, there is a circular walkway. The flow of people on the walkway is relatively noisy, so we have raised the interface and created a horizontal height difference to establish both near and far relationships, ensuring relative independence between inside and outside while allowing visual connection. Inside, people can greet passing friends, sit and gaze outside, and passersby can stop to rest. At appropriate times, the merchants can also display their goods. On the east side, at the end of the island, we have enclosed a quiet space for natural contact using stairs, the space below the second floor overhang, and several peach trees on the island. On the south side, a cement platform has been built by the lake. Future occupants such as kayak brands can wash their boats here, and guests and staff can also have more private conversations while sitting on a couple of chairs. On the west side, as one of the entrances to the building, we have created a mesh canopy around the trees, which can filter out some falling debris to form a gray space, and equipped with a bar space to support future outdoor activities such as coffee, alcohol, and music playback.

 

2. Light Structural Materials, Emphasizing Spatial Forms:

 

To achieve the above spatial ideals and enable more freedom and possibilities for the space, we have adopted a strategy of lightweight structural materials and emphasizing spatial forms in construction logic. The use of a 100*100-sized steel frame, sunlight panels, and pressure-regulated steel plates, among other industrial products, enables low cost, rapid construction, and compliance with green energy requirements. Under lightweight industrial materials, wooden materials are used for local beams and columns to create a cozy community atmosphere.

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3. Sustainability:

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The gap between the speed of information in modern society and the "time lag" of the real world has led to urban hollowness and anxiety. We hope to confront this anxiety by orienting towards sustainable development and creating buildings that are perceptive to the present moment and changes.

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Mesh canopies are used for the building facade, not emphasizing the building's outline. Fallen leaves on the canopy become part of the building process and materials. The appearance of the building changes with the seasons, from green to yellow, and from sparse to dense. Combined with Chengdu's local climate characteristics, the boundaries between artificial and natural are blurred, utilizing tree canopies to form spaces, extending outdoor stone paving indoors, and bringing soil and small flowers into the interior. The facade adopts a multi-layered structure, with the outer layer's mesh providing permeability for environmental protection and energy conservation when the temperature is suitable, while the inner layer's glass sliding doors provide insulation and anti-theft features.

 

Conclusion: 

 

Any form of commerce has a certain degree of public space attributes, and public spaces also possess conditions for commercial activities. They have a mutually beneficial relationship that needs to be verified. "Was the birth of urban public space invented or achieved through negotiation?" This question also applies here. Negotiation is a reciprocal change, and sustainability is an adaptive change. In this 10-year limited community, we aim to use these ten years to verify our understanding of sustainability and the reality of sustainability being "unsustainable (unchanging)".

当通透的空间溢出了建筑边界也就让周围的湖风也来自四面八方，建筑与自然交换，商业与公共性进行协商。

 

CPI W-18b是位于成都麓湖CPI商业集群湖畔的一栋新建小型商业建筑，作为Badmarket联合MRS实验性的水上活动用具展示空间。

 

希望建筑可以与湖滨、树木和环境有机融合的同时，创造有公共性、活力的新商业使用场景。并提出设计如何能更好地帮助商业场景实现可持续发展，小型商业建筑如何回应公共性的诉求。我们也希望可以借此机会展开商业空间和公共空间（公共性）的关系和可持续性议题的讨论。

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1. 公共空间（公共性）：

 

CPI作为“自然野生花园式”独栋商业集群社区，通过“公共空间”的集合—公园、广场、空地、人行道、水滨和街道等将散落在各处的一个个独立的商业单体串联起来。社区提供了这些公共空间，我们认为商业单体也应该承担公共责任的一部分。走累了的客人不能只坐在路边的长凳上，也要在每家店的门口也可以坐坐。如果每个单体一味追求营业面积的最大化，或者对自己的边界严防死守，那么这个社区将会被一个个不连续的、互不相干的，甚至是对立的片段所组成。

 

因此我们将建筑积极地向四周打开，在每一面与外界连接形成新的使用情景，支持并参与到公共活动中来。北面，是面对内湖的环形栈道。栈道来来往往的⼈流相对⽐较嘈杂，如何保持开放的同时，⼜能相互之间不受干扰、保证经营场景。我们采取了抬高界⾯，制造水平面⾼度差的⽅式。建立又近又远的关系，既能保证内外相对独立，又能互望。室内的人可以跟路过的朋友打打招呼，可以坐下来望望外面发呆，路人也可以停下来歇歇脚，合适的时候商家也可以放放商品；东面，是小岛的尽头，我们用楼梯、二楼悬挑下的空间和岛上的几颗桃花树围合出了一个安静的和自然接触的空间；南面，临湖做了一个水泥平台。未来入住的皮划艇品牌可以在这里洗船，客人和店员也可以搬两把椅子在这展开更私密一些的对话；西面，作为建筑的入口之一，围绕着树我们做了一个网罩，落叶掉落其上形成灰空间的玄关，并且搭配一个吧台空间支持未来的咖啡、酒精、音乐播放等户外活动。

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2. 轻结构材质、重空间形式：

 

为实现以上的空间理想，以及希望让空间得到更多的解放、获得更多的可能性，在建造逻辑上，采用了轻结构材质，重空间形式的策略。100*100尺寸梁柱的钢结构框架，阳光板、压型钢板等工业成品的使用，得以实现低造价、快速建造以及对绿色节能的呼应。轻质工业材料下，局部梁柱与构件采用木质材料，形成亲人的社区氛围。

 

 

3. 可持续性：

 

现代社会难以应对的信息速度与现实世界的“时差”，造成了城市的空洞与焦虑。我们希望直面焦虑，以可持续发展为导向，尝试可以感知当下，感知变化的建筑。 

 

建筑外立面使用网罩，不强调建筑体的轮廓。网罩上停留的落叶成为建筑过程和材料的⼀部分，建筑的外表皮跟随着四季变化，从绿到黄、从稀疏到紧实，强调一种未完成的、变化的状态。结合成都当地气候特征，打开⼈工与自然的边界，善用树冠树荫形成空间，铺地的石材从室外延伸至室内，也将土壤和小花小草带入室内。⽴面采用多层结构，外层张拉网的通透性在温度适宜的时候实现环保节能，内层玻璃推拉门实现保温防盗。

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结语：

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任何形式的商业都有一定的公共空间属性，公共空间也具备商业行为的条件，他们互相之间是增益的关系，但需要被验证。 “城市公共空间的诞生是被发明的还是通过协商得到的？”这个问题也同样适用于这里。协商是一种你来我往的变化，可持续也是一种适应性的变化。在这个10年限定的社区里，用十年来证实我们所理解的可持续性，和可持续性“不可持续(⼀成不变)”的现实。 

Photo Credits: lifashi

摄影: lifashi