Designed by studio505, Phoenix Valley, Wujin has invigorated and defined a new cultural heart for the blossoming new city in China?s Jiangsu Province.

The project at Phoenix Valley is a government funded and operated Theatre, Film and Arts Centre. Run as a competition in late 2009, the brief proposed strict zoning for the site which directed all designers to divert an axial canal in a blunt right-hand turn across the front of a basic rectangular building footprint, and left open the option of a square to the front or the side.
Photography: John Gollings
studio505 broke this zoning and instead proposed that the canal was drawn into the site, becoming the active element that has carved out the valley from a green-roofed mountain mass. This gesture created a protected internal courtyard space, an internalized yet outdoor central gathering space secure from busy roads, allowing a public space, connection to the big screen and access to all the parts of the center from within the valley.
Comprising a series of independently operated, but integrated programmes of 4 cinemas; a 1000 seat grand theatre capable of both traditional Chinese opera and radical digital immersive performances; a five storey flexible art gallery; a youth palace(learning centre) to educate 4000 students; an occupation experience hall, a sports and dance hall; a selection of retail, café and food facilities and a connected and permeable children?s playground, landscaped courtyard and large format LED scre...