Team: Chen Cen, Zhai Yukun, Shang Yi
Collaborators : Vanke, Playable Design
Exhibition Period : Sep. 26th – Oct. 7th, 2016
Location : Quanye Chang, Xicheng District, Beijing
“Dragon Rebirth”, was part of 2016 Beijing Design Week “Open Heart Design” Exhibition, opened on September 26th. It showed how a decadent historic building (the Five Dragons Temple) transforming into an open museum of Chinese architecture history after improving its environment. The aim of the exhibition was to arouse public awareness on cultural relic conservation.
Quanye Chang, where the exhibition was held, is also a historical building. As a result, there were many restrictions in place to protect the interior: exhibitors could not make any changes to the floors, walls, ceilings, etc. As a result, the team then turned the archive of the Five Dragons Temple project into two special cabinets, showcasing the project to the visitors through discovering the story inside the drawers and doors of the cabinets.
Visitors could learn Chinese traditional architecture in this exhibition, and could even build miniature dougongs structures with their own hands. Moreover, URBANUS collaborated with Playable Design, whom provided Lego bricks for visitors, allowing them to build whatever their imaginations could think of.
The exhibition “Dragon Rebirth” illustrated the whole story of regenerating the Five Dragons Temple, as well as conveyed a creative concept of relic conservation. It also acted as a platform for public discussion on cultural preservation.
