Longfu Life Experience Centre is a sustainable prefabricated timber building based on general materials and construction techniques. Real estate sales centres in China are a kind of temporary architecture that only last several months or few years at most, which are usually dismantled after houses are sold. Even if it can be preserved, the functions are completely transformed. For the sake of showing quality and taste, real estate sales centres generally feature complicated and luxurious interior designs, which consume plenty of construction materials. Even if a sales centre is preserved and adapted to other use, it usually causes obstacles concerning the waste of resources in the process of functional repurposing.
This design aimed to create a building that not only met the temporary need of marketing but also has the potential for a wide range of other uses. It’s more appropriate to say that it is a space without functional constraints rather than just a sales centre. The materials and spaces were made as reusable as possible.
To maximise the possible functions, it’s important to maximise the free splicing and extension of each modular unit. To meet the needs of the different sizes of spaces and because of the uncertainty about the site conditions for construction, it was necessary to adopt common materials and techniques.
Common timbers created a maximised space. Several square columns were combined together to form a ‘clustered column’, which extends upward from the bottom and formed a square outside edge. Each unit along the edge was horizontally and longitudinally interlined. The space is extendible, and the more it stretches, the more stable the structure is.
Simple and basic construction methods were adopted as well as common material processing techniques, so that ordinary technical workers were capable of carrying out the construction work. The design strove to ensure the standardisation and modularisation of units. The whole building was divided into several primary modular units, and these units were further split into various standard components, which were assembled based on a unified approach.
Standard timbers were selected and the design applied common processing and construction techniques, with a view to creating a universal space that boasts infinite possible usages rather than be limited to a certain specific function. The building is a universal space, but more importantly it is a universally used space. The whole building or any part of it can be enlarged, cut, replaced or moved based on different needs. What’s more, it can also be completely dismantled and repurposed, and its materials can be reused for other constructions, which is sustainable and environmentally friendly.