The Courtyard Weicheng Civic Center was originally a single-story steel structure factory building, featuring six steel scaffolding spans. The original structural columns were preserved, while the courtyard was excavated and the space subdivided into distinct functional clusters. These clusters host a variety of uses including convenience services, corporate offices, cultural exhibitions, libraries, small theaters, and administrative offices, all arranged around their respective courtyards to create a compact urban fabric.
The sky-facing courtyards act as transitional gray spaces between the clusters, offering natural landscapes and fresh air to users. Each courtyard tells its own story, arranged from north to south as: Where is Qingxi, Seeking Fragrance on a Victorious Day, Joyful Feast in Nine Provinces, Wide Tides and Wilderness, and Spring Blossoming with Dried Trees. Surrounded by plants, the courtyards transform with the seasons—lilacs bloom in spring, wisteria in summer, red maple in autumn, and bamboo covered with snow in winter. The interplay of sunlight, gentle breezes, rain, and snow, along with fragrant flowers and varied foliage, creates a serene atmosphere that invites reflection and tranquility.
The migratory corridor connects the courtyards and rooms through a hallway reminiscent of a “hand-copied corridor,” linking public spaces, internal offices, and outdoor areas. The traditional double-loaded corridor design was reimagined by removing some rooms and creating terraces or eaves that open to the courtyards, softening the transition between interior and exterior. As visitors move through the corridor, they experience a dynamic interplay of spatial forms and lighting conditions.
In the Garden of Light, natural light is maximized through the use of courtyards and skylights, bringing daylight deep into the interior spaces. The entrance and service halls are gently illuminated by the sky above, creating a calm and harmonious ambiance. At corridor bends, natural scenery is introduced, and subtle shifts in lighting enhance the spatial experience.
To preserve the original factory building height while ensuring sufficient spatial capacity and indoor clear heights on four floors (3.6m for the first two floors and 4.2m for the upper two), precise pipeline integration was arranged. Combined with 3D modeling, challenges such as steel beam perforations, pipeline threading, and main pipe rerouting were visualized and resolved, effectively addressing widespread issues of limited net height.
△ Analysis chart
To ensure comfortable indoor access to the courtyards, the courtyard floors were lowered by 600mm, which further limited the already constrained lower space. To accommodate this, the main aerial courtyard was positioned above the garage, allowing for a significant reduction in floor height. The lowered floor level of 600mm was also used as planting soil depth to meet basic conditions for vegetation growth.
The building’s exterior walls feature a dry-hanging curtain wall system. To minimize keel material consumption, a 300 × 900 modulus butt joint layout was adopted, with 300 modulus staggered joints used only in areas with small window matrices, accommodating window openings sized 300 × 600.
Additionally, numerous air inlets, exhaust outlets, and smoke exhaust vents from the HVAC system posed challenges to the facade’s aesthetics. Apart from routing as many as possible to the roof, ceramic rod louvers were employed to integrate the air outlet forms with the curtain wall, preserving the facade’s visual coherence where modifications were not feasible.
Project Drawings
△ General Layout Plan
△ First Floor Plan
△ Second Floor Plan
△ Third Floor Plan
△ Fourth Floor Plan
△ Elevation Drawing
△ Elevation Drawing
△ Elevation Drawing
△ Elevation Drawing
△ Section Diagram
△ Section Diagram
△ Partial Detailed Drawing
△ Sectional Perspective
△ Sectional Perspective
△ Sectional Perspective
△ Analysis Chart
△ Partial Detailed Drawing
Project Information
Architect: Yidu Architecture
Area: 22,767 m²
Project Year: 2022
Photographer: Weiqi Jin
Manufacturers: Beijing Chaoling Construction Engineering Co., Ltd; Hebei Shahe Longlong Glass Factory; Tianjin Fudi Building Materials Products Co., Ltd
Principal Architect: Chen Ximin
Design Team: Chen Ximin, Li Chuanchen, Chen Shanshan, Zhang Xu
Structural Design: Meng Qingqiang
Landscape Design: Yidu Architecture
Construction Contractor: AVIC Construction Group Co., Ltd
Partner: Huacheng Boyuan Technology Engineering Group Co., Ltd
Curtain Wall Consultant: Beijing Chaoling Construction Engineering Co., Ltd
Client: Beijing Lucheng Construction and Development Co., Ltd
Location: Beijing, China
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