Going to museums to see exhibitions, going to theaters to watch performances, and learning special skills in cultural centers, these cultural activities have become an increasingly popular way of life. As material life becomes richer, people are more eager for a high-quality cultural life.
In the season of spring blossoms, the three major cultural buildings, Beijing Art Center, Beijing City Library and Beijing Grand Canal Museum, welcome a steady stream of visitors in the forest park of the urban green heart of Beijing's urban sub-center.
On December 27, 2023, the three major cultural buildings started to open to the public, added a new cultural landmark to Beijing's urban sub-center on the banks of the Millennium Canal. Since the beginning of the planning and construction, Beijing has adhered to the construction requirements of "world vision, international standards, Chinese characteristics, and high 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 and meet the diversified cultural needs of the citizens. The three cultural buildings will help enhance the cultural temperament of the sub-center and meet the diversified cultural needs of the citizens.
Citizen Liu Ming, who just came to Beijing to work, plans to spend the weekend strolling through Beijing's major cultural landmarks, and his first choice is the Beijing Grand Canal Museum. "When you look at the Grand Canal Museum from afar, the roof in the shape of a sail is full of lines and motion." Liu Ming said the shape of the "Canal Boat" is quite creative.
In Beijing's urban sub-center, three major cultural buildings have their own nicknames due to their unique design——
Beijing Grand Canal Museum, also known as "Canal Boat", derives its design concept from the three elements of boat, sail and water in the picture of the ancient canal. The south side of the building is shaped like a huge sail raised high, and the north side is as solid and heavy as a boat, showing a picture of the canal.
Beijing City Library, also known as the "Forest Book Garden", combines traditional Chinese imagery and new public space design, with transparent glass curtain walls that allow nature and the building to merge into one, and the two "book mountains" in the pavilion are magnificent, creating the elegant reading atmosphere of "close to the mountains, under the trees, and frequent reading".
The Beijing Art Center, also known as the "Cultural Granary", is inspired by the ancient grain silos in Tongzhou and the ships that transported the materials, and is designed and constructed in accordance with the standards of world-class theaters.
According to the introduction, the design suggestions of the three major cultural buildings were collected from both domestic and international and they were produced by the first-class Chinese and foreign architectural design teams. After more than 1,400 days and nights of continuous work, the construction team framed the busy canal picture thousand years ago into buildings. "The three major cultural buildings have unique shapes and complex structures, and the difficulty of component processing and construction and installation has never been greater, and we have overcame a number of technical problems in the industry." Chen Hongda, director of major projects and general manager of the three major cultural buildings project department of Beijing Urban Vice Center Investment and Construction Group Co. said.
The three major cultural buildings are not only beautiful on the outside, but also have profound "connotations". The Beijing Art Center was selected from more than 300 top projects in 35 countries and won the international award in the field of engineering digital construction, and its acoustic effect has reached the world's top level of sound quality after actual testing; the Beijing City Library has realized the production, processing and installation of the 16-meter world-class super-high glass curtain wall, and the fully automated mechanical bookstore has brought readers a new experience of book lending and reading; and the Beijing Grand Canal Museum has installed 242 anti-seismic bearings to protect the safety of the building and cultural relics...... In addition, the three major cultural buildings have fully implemented the three-star green building standards, and have built a variety of complementary energy systems such as ground-source heat pumps and photovoltaic power generation, as well as a "sponge city" system.
The three cultural buildings are modern public cultural facilities on the Grand Canal cultural belt, where modern civilization and canal culture mingle. The relevant operators are promoting the popularity of art, the fragrance of books and the revitalization of cultural relics to make the three cultural buildings a place for citizens to enjoy a high-quality cultural and leisure life.
Create a composite space with diverse functions and forms. "Every cultural building is not a cultural space with a single function, and while doing a good job in the 'main business', it is also necessary to take a variety of forms to meet people's new expectations for cultural life." Hu Jiulong, a member of the Party Working Committee and deputy director of the management committee of the Beijing Urban Vice Center, said.
Walking into the Beijing City Library, in the knowledge space supported by 144 "ginkgo trees", the novelty of the "valley foyer" is amazing, and the staggered ladder structure creates a full reading and book collection space, which is 75,000 square meters in size and a collection of 8 million books, which can be read on every step. The library is not only a desirable temple of knowledge, but also a composite multicultural complex that integrates the functions of knowledge dissemination, urban think tank and learning and sharing. Since the opening of the library, the "1,000 reading activities" have been launched one after another, making the library more and more lively.
Selected operators promote the continuous introduction and sharing of cultural and artistic resources. The operators of Beijing Art Center, Beijing City Library and Beijing Grand Canal Museum are the National Grand Theater, Capital Library and Capital Museum respectively. The operators have fully mobilized the relevant cultural resources, allowing the three major cultural buildings to open up one by one and become popular places for people to visit in pursuit of a high-quality cultural and leisure life.
At the beginning of its opening, the Beijing Art Center announced that there would be 300 high-quality performances in 2024. Where does its confidence come from? "Operated by the National Grand Theater, the quality is guaranteed." A veteran theater fan said. According to Guan Jianbo, member of the party group and vice president of the NCPA, the Beijing Art Center will, on the one hand, introduce the NCPA's classic repertoire and realize simultaneous staging in both places, highlighting the positioning of "high quality and high standard"; on the other hand, it will also introduce musicals, modern dances, pioneering dramas, immersive performances and other artistic disciplines to expand the new scene of performing arts.
Promoting the living heritage and development of culture. The three major cultural buildings have incorporated ingenious ideas in the construction process, designing transparent trestles through which the public can see a part of the site of the old canal road and so on. Meanwhile, the Beijing Grand Canal Museum has launched rich thematic activities and more than 500 kinds of cultural and creative products in 8 categories, combining the collection of cultural relics, canal culture, old-fashioned inheritance, intangible heritage culture and cultural and creative design, and integrating the national style and national trend into daily life.
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's urban sub-center gives the answer.
According to Hu Jiulong, on the basis of the urban green heart forest park, the three major cultural buildings strive to improve the accessibility, convenience and practicality of public cultural facilities, innovatively breaking the inherent pattern of the previous public building complexes built independently of each other, and realizing the innovation of the model of the integrated design and construction of the five monolithic buildings of theaters, libraries, museums, shared ancillary facilities and reserved stations of the rail transit and building "public space without walls", truly realizing openness and sharing.
Mutual "neighbors" of the three major cultural buildings, each with special features, each with exciting activities, different cultural resources gathered here, showing like a "cultural magnet" to attract the public tourists to visit. "The three cultural buildings use new technologies such as meta-universe, cloud interconnection, and 4D movie viewing to provide citizens with a convenient and intelligent experience." Hu Jiulong said.
Technology empowers and makes the cultural experience more convenient. In Beijing City Library, the "senseless library" gives readers a new experience. After the reader takes the book out of the bookshelf, the visual inventory system will be triggered and the reader will be dynamically tracked, and the book will be automatically bound to the reader's reading column, "If the book is taken out of the reading space, the book will automatically be borrowed." Hu Jiulong said.
Technological innovation has brought high-quality culture and art to the public. Walking into the elegant concert hall of Beijing Art Center, you can see a stage surrounded by audience seats and a pipe organ. According to the introduction, this pipe organ has advanced technology——the electronic console mechanical touch system, which expands the possibility of playing all kinds of organ music for the Beijing Art Center.
In addition, the three major cultural buildings also provide "warm" services to the public through the detailed design of mother and child spaces, barrier-free elevators, and free manual timed interpretation services.
The "Cultural Granary", a theater of great performances; the "Forest Book Garden", a home of knowledge; and the "Canal Boat", a place to set sail. The three cultural buildings are "integrated" into the city's green heart, where citizens can once again enjoying and relaxing, discovering the beauty of nature, appreciating the beauty of architecture, and feeling the beauty of culture. In the near future, this area will become the civic center, vitality center, and cultural, leisure and entertainment center of Beijing's urban subcenter.