Architectural Renovation of the Oxygen Factory for the XXIV Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022

it is a project in collaboration with Tsinghua University in Beijing: whitin the masterplan of the Olympic Venue of Shougang (XXIV Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022), the Department of Architecture of Polito was asked to design the renovation of a former Oxygen Factory, to become a Visitor Center for the spectators of Big Air competitions. The project is currently (April 2021) under advanced construction, following Polito's architectural Design. It was a real opportunity of applied research, in the framework of a long-lasting research collaboration with Tsinghua University. The main design goal was to resize a huge factory into a human scaled building, making it permeable to the public. The ground floor became the key-space of the whole project: a roofed playground that gathers and engages the public in physical activities and open-air sports. The design of the ground floor places "people" at the core of the architectural discourse, providing users with multiple potential relations with urban space. People find themselves in between interior and exterior (under a roof yet open air), natural and artificial (in a former factory yet a few metres away from water), individual and collective (in small and "domestic" spaces yet fluently connected to each other). The presence of people is what activates the area under the suspended volume, and gives consistency to the "playful" nature of the renovated building. In this way, it becomes the vehicle of body-space creative engagement, stimulating interaction and enjoyment.