Going to the museum to see exhibitions, going to the theater to watch performances, and going to the cultural center to learn special skills have become an increasingly popular lifestyle. With the increasing abundance of material life, people are more eager for high-quality cultural life.
Report to the 20th CPC National Congress, the Communist Party of China, proposed to improve the modern public cultural service system and innovatively implement the project of benefiting the people through culture. The Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Public Cultural Services proposes to create a distinctive and tasteful public cultural space based on the characteristics of urban and rural areas, expand the coverage of public cultural services, and enhance the effectiveness. In recent years, all localities have organically combined the improvement of public cultural services with the process of urbanization, and a number of “new cultural landmarks” have emerged that enrich cultural supply and highlight urban characteristics. This edition will launch a series of reports “Decoding New Cultural Landmarks” from now on, focusing on the practice of venue design, cultural exchange and service for the benefit of the people in representative public cultural places around the country, and exploring how to better meet people’s spiritual and cultural needs.
-editor
In the spring season, in the Green Heart Forest Park, the sub-center city of Beijing, three major cultural buildings, namely Beijing Art Center, Beijing City Library and Beijing Grand Canal Museum, welcome an endless stream of visitors.
On December 27, 2023, three major cultural buildings were opened to the outside world, and new cultural landmarks were added to the construction of Beijing City Sub-center along the Millennium Games. Since the beginning of planning and construction, Beijing has adhered to the construction requirements of “world vision, international standards, China characteristics and high-point positioning” and the construction concept of “people-centered”, so that the three major cultural buildings can help enhance the cultural temperament of the sub-center city and meet the diverse cultural needs of the citizens.
The architectural modeling is quite creative.
Liu Ming, a citizen, soon came to work in Beijing and planned to visit all the major cultural landmarks in Beijing on weekends. He chose the Beijing Grand Canal Museum as his first choice. “Looking at the Grand Canal Museum from a distance, several sail-like roofs are strewn at random, full of curves and full of movement.” Liu Ming said that the shape of the “Canal Boat” is quite creative.
In the Beijing City Sub-center, each of the three major cultural buildings has an “elegant name” because of its unique design-
The Beijing Grand Canal Museum, also known as the “boat of the canal”, has its design concept derived from the three elements of the ancient canal, namely, boat, sail and water. The south side of the building looks like a giant sail, and the north side looks like a ship, showing a picture of the canal.
Beijing City Library, also known as “Forest Bookstore”, combines China’s traditional image of “Red Seal” with the design of new public space in a freehand manner. The high-permeability glass curtain wall integrates nature with architecture, and the two “book mountains” in the library are grand and long, creating a reading charm of “facing the mountains, under the trees and reading diligently”.
Beijing Art Center, also known as the “cultural granary”, originated from Tongzhou ancient granary and ships carrying materials, and designed and built according to the standard of world-class first-class theater.
According to reports, the design schemes of the three major cultural buildings have been collected at home and abroad..Produced and completed by the first-class architectural design teams at home and abroad. After more than 1400 days and nights of continuous fighting, the construction party has frozen the busy canal landscape thousands of years ago in the form of architecture. “The three major cultural buildings have unique shapes and complex structures, and the processing, construction and installation of components are unprecedented, which has overcome many technical problems in industry fields.” Chen Hongda, director of major projects of Beijing City Sub-center Investment and Construction Group Co., Ltd. and general manager of the three major cultural construction projects departments, said.
The three cultural buildings are not only beautiful in appearance, but also profound in connotation. Beijing Art Center stands out from more than 300 top projects in 35 countries and won the international prize in the field of engineering digital construction. Its acoustic effect has reached the world’s top sound quality level through actual measurement. Beijing City Library realizes the production, processing and installation of 16m world-class ultra-high glass curtain wall, and the fully automatic mechanical stack room brings readers a new experience of book borrowing. The Grand Canal Museum in Beijing has installed 242 isolation bearings evenly to protect the safety of buildings and cultural relics … In addition, the three major cultural buildings have fully implemented the three-star green building standards, and built multi-energy complementary energy systems such as ground source heat pump and photovoltaic power generation, and a “sponge city” system with stagnant storage and consumption.
Art resources are rich and diverse.
The three major cultural buildings are modern public cultural facilities on the cultural belt of the Grand Canal, where modern civilization and canal culture are displayed together. Relevant operators are promoting the art to be hot, the book to be rich, and the cultural relics to be alive, making the three major cultural buildings a place for citizens to enjoy high-quality cultural and leisure life.
Create a complex space with diverse functions and forms. “Every cultural building is not a cultural space with a single function. While doing a good job in the’ main business’, it adopts various forms to meet people’s new expectations for cultural life.” Hu Jiulong, member of the Party Working Committee of Beijing City Sub-center and deputy director of the Management Committee, said.
Walking into the Beijing City Library, I am in the knowledge space supported by 144 “ginkgo trees”. The novel scenery of the “Valley Hall” is amazing, and the layered stepped structure forms a full reading and book collection space. This 7.In the 50,000-square-meter building, there are 8 million books in the library, which will be read with you. The library is not only a desirable temple of knowledge, but also a multi-cultural complex integrating knowledge dissemination, urban think tank, learning sharing and other functions. Since its opening, the “Thousands of Reading Activities” launched one after another have made the museum more and more lively.
Select operators to promote the introduction and sharing of cultural and artistic resources. Beijing Art Center, Beijing City Library and Beijing Grand Canal Museum are operated by National Grand Theatre, Capital Library and Capital Museum respectively. Operators fully mobilize relevant cultural resources, so that as soon as the three major cultural buildings are opened, they will become popular punching places for people to pursue high-quality cultural and leisure life.
At the beginning of its opening, Beijing Art Center announced that there will be 300 high-quality performances in 2024. Where does the confidence come from? “Operated by the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the quality is guaranteed.” A senior drama fan said. According to Guan Jianbo, member of the party group and vice president of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, on the one hand, Beijing Art Center introduced the classic plays of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, realizing the simultaneous performance of the two places, and highlighting the program positioning of “high grade and high standard”; On the other hand, musical, modern dance, avant-garde drama, immersive performance and other art categories are introduced to expand new performing scenes.
Promote the live transmission and development of culture. During the construction of the three major cultural buildings, ingenious ideas were incorporated, and transparent plank roads were designed, through which citizens can see some ancient remains such as the ruins of the old canal road. At the same time, Beijing Grand Canal Museum has launched rich theme activities, more than 500 kinds of cultural and creative products in 8 categories, combining the cultural relics in the collection, canal culture, time-honored brand inheritance, non-legacy culture and cultural and creative design, and integrating the national style and tide into daily life.
Wisdom, convenience and open sharing
In urban construction, how to make public cultural space more convenient and beneficial to the people? The planning and layout of the three major cultural buildings in Beijing city sub-center gives the answer.
According to Hu Jiulong, on the basis of urban green heart forest park, the three major cultural buildings focus on improving the closeness, convenience and practicability of public cultural facilities, innovatively breaking the inherent mode of independent construction of public building clusters in the past, realizing the mode innovation of integrated design and construction of five single buildings, namely theater, library, museum, shared supporting facilities and rail transit reserved station, and building a “public space without walls” to achieve open sharing.
The three major cultural buildings that are “neighbors” each have their own unique functions and wonderful activities. Different cultural resources gather here, attracting citizens and tourists to visit and punch in like “cultural magnets”. “The three major cultural buildings use new technologies such as meta-universe, cloud interconnection and 4D movie viewing to provide citizens with convenient and quick wisdom experience.” Hu Jiulong said.
Technology empowerment makes cultural experience more convenient. In Beijing City Library, the “study without feeling” gives readers a new experience… After the reader takes the book out of the bookshelf, the visual inventory system will be triggered to dynamically track the reader and automatically bind the book to the reader’s reading bar. “If the book is taken out of the reading space, the book will be automatically borrowed.” Hu Jiulong said.
Technological innovation brings high-quality culture and art into public view. Walking into the elegantly decorated concert hall of Beijing Art Center, but seeing a stage surrounded by the audience, an organ came into view. According to reports, this organ has advanced technology-the mechanical touch system of the electronic stage, which expands the possibility for Beijing Art Center to play all kinds of organ music.
In addition, the three major cultural buildings also provide “temperature” services to the public through the detailed design of maternal and child space, barrier-free elevators and free manual regular explanation services.
“cultural granary”, a good show; “Forest Bookstore”, the home of knowledge; “Canal boat”, set sail. The three major cultural buildings “melt” in the green heart of the city, and citizens wander here to discover the beauty of nature, appreciate the beauty of architecture and feel the beauty of culture. In the near future, it will become the civic center, vitality center and cultural leisure and entertainment center of Beijing’s sub-center. (People’s Daily reporter Pan Junqiang Shi Fang)