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Liyuan Library by Li Xiaodong Atelier

This project is modest addition to the small village of Huairou on the outskirts of Beijing, just under a two hours drive from busy Beijing urban life.

On the one hand it forms a modern programmatic complement to the village by adding a small library and reading space within a setting of quiet contemplation. On the other hand we wanted to use architecture to enhance the appreciation of the natural landscaping qualities.

So instead of adding a new building inside the village center, we chose this particular site in the nearby mountains, a pleasant five minute walk from the village center. In doing so we could provide a setting of clear thoughts when one consciously takes the effort to head for the reading room.

Because of the overwhelming beauty of the surrounding nature our intervention is modest in its outward expression. We can’t compete with nature’s splendor. The building blends into the landscape through the delicate choice of materials and the careful placement of the building volume. Especially the choice of material is crucial in blending with the regional characteristics. After analyzing the local material characteristics in the village we found large amounts of locally sourced wooden sticks piled around each house. The villagers gather these sticks all year round to fuel their cooking stoves. Thus we decided to use this ordinary material in an extraordinary way, cladding the building in familiar textures in a way that is strikingly sensitive.

The inside of the building has a very expressive character though; its interior is spatially diverse by using steps and small level changes to create distinct places. It frames views towards the surrounding landscape and acts as an embracing shelter. The building is fully glazed to allow for a fully daylight space. The wooden sticks temper the bright light and spread it evenly throughout the space to provide for a perfect reading ambience.
Via contemporist.com     

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Red Ribbon in Tanghe River Park

In Qinhuangdao, China the Tanghe River Park features a new installation of a red steel bench that runs for half a kilometre through the park.

The Red Ribbon project has won an honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects, and was also selected by readers of Conde Nast Traveller magazine as one of the seven new wonders of the architecture world.
Via contemporist.com

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Nanjing Sifang Art Museum by Steven Holl Architects

Perspective is the fundamental historic difference between Western and Chinese painting. After the 13th Century, Western painting developed vanishing points in fixed perspective. Chinese painters, although aware of perspective, rejected the single-vanishing point method, instead producing landscapes with “parallel perspectives” in which the viewer travels within the painting.

The new museum is sited at the gateway to the Contemporary International Practical Exhibition of Architecture in the lush green landscape of the Pearl Spring near Nanjing, China. The museum explores the shifting viewpoints, layers of space, and expanses of mist and water, which characterize the deep alternating spatial mysteries of early Chinese painting. The museum is formed by a “field” of parallel perspective spaces and garden walls in black bamboo-formed concrete over which a light “figure” hovers. The straight passages on the ground level gradually turn into the winding passage of the figure above. The upper gallery, suspended high in the air, unwraps in a clockwise turning sequence and culminates at “in-position” viewing of the city of Nanjing in the distance. The meaning of this rural site becomes urban through this visual axis to the great Ming Dynasty capital city, Nanjing.

The courtyard is paved in recycled Old Hutong bricks from the destroyed courtyards in the center of Nanjing. Limiting the colors of the museum to black and white connects it to the ancient paintings, but also gives a background to feature the colors and textures of the artwork and architecture to be exhibited within. Bamboo, previously growing on the site, has been used in bamboo- formed concrete, with a black penetrating stain. The Museum has geothermal cooling and heating, and recycled storm water.

Visit the website of Steven Holl Architects – here. Photography by Li Hu and Shu He

Via contemporist.com

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Swissnex Shanghai Interior by EXH Design

The team of architects at EXH Design created the interior for Swissnex Shanghai, Switzerland’s outpost for science, technology and culture in China.

From EXH Design:

In the design process we integrated the architectural logic with design sensibility, to arrive at rational conclusions by carefully considering and evaluating the evidence available. A big and flexible functional space is divided by a curved screen into 2 areas: public space for workshops, conference, exhibitions and reception, behind the screen is friendly working space also with a high flexibility for 7 to 14 workers. The screen flowing between ‘public’ and ‘private’ is the sensitive element plugged into the interior. The special attraction of this screen is its visual animation while you pass through.

Visit the EXH Design website – here.

Via contemporist.com

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Sales Office by One Plus Partnership

One Plus Partnership have designed the sales office for a real estate company in Chongqing, China
Via contemporist.com

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Wuxi Grand Theatre

In 2008, PES-Architects won first prize in the invited international architectural design competition for Wuxi Grand Theatre.

The Wuxi Grand Theatre is located on a man-made peninsula of Wu-Li Lake, south of Wuxi centre city and is the most important new cultural building project of the Tai-Hu New City. The Wuxi Grand Theatre due to its location and its architectural image is the newest landmark building in the Wuxi area.

The new complex contains a wide variety of functions, but most noticeably it will house the 1680 seat Grand Theatre for classical and Chinese opera, ballet, and symphony orchestral music and a Comprehensive Performance Hall with a capacity 690 seats.

The main architectural image of the Wuxi Grand Theatre consists of eight leaves, or wings, which, together with the terraced stone plinth give the impression of a butterfly descending onto the shore of the Wu-Li Lake. This artist and sculptural form creates a landmark building for Wuxi’s new performing arts center. PES-Architects wanted to give such a form to this new art institute so that the building itself becomes a work of art – a big sculpture. In addition to this the wings are an important part of the ecological concept as they protect the building mass from the direct heat of the sun.

In order to take full advantage of its lakeside location, the main entrance and public spaces have been raised from the surrounding level creating a stone plinth. On the top of this sits the two stone auditoriums, which are linked by the glazed entrance lobby with open views across Wu-Li Lake.

There are additional views across the lake and to the direction of the old city from the two public lakeside foyers and the terraces connected to them.

A second public entrance is provided from the lower lakeside level and under the plinth are the technical and service facilities, shared by both auditoriums, as well as parking areas for staff and services, the audience and for VIP guests.

Designed by PES Architects

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China Is One Of The Most Exciting Places To Be An Architect Right Now

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ARCHITECT@WORK Launches In China

The European all-in-one event designed exclusively for architects, designers and other
professionals with a focus on innovation “ARCHITECT@WORK” officially launches in Shanghai

After more than 20 successful editions throughout Europe, the first-ever edition of
ARCHITECT@WORK CHINA (SHANGHAI) will take place on September 6 and 7, 2012 in the Shanghai Expo Centre. In only 2 days, visitors will have the opportunity to explore hundreds of innovations and meet high level targeted architects, designers and corporate decision makers in a customized, trendy and relaxed atmosphere.

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Gensler’s Chris Chan on the Sustainable Shanghai Tower

In 2008 Gensler broke ground on the sustainable Shanghai Tower in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. The tower is currently in construction and it’s one of three supertall buildings in Pudong, including the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. The elegant structure spirals up to the sky, and once it is completed in 2014 it will become the second tallest tower in the world — only second to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The 632 meter tall structure is a testament to both modern architecture and the potential of engineering, and it also sets a precedent for sustainable super structures. The tower will take the form of nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop each other, enclosed by layers of glass, and hosting public space for visitors including atriums, gardens, cafes, restaurants, retail space, a hotel, and 360-degree views of the city. The building will also include a rainwater recycling system and a series of wind turbines able to generate up to 350,000 kWh of electricity per year. But most notably, the tower’s glass façade was designed specifically to reduce wind loads on the building by 24%, which means that fewer construction materials are needed (including 25% less structural steel). We recently spoke to Gensler‘s Chris Chan, Design Director and member of the tower’s design team, who gave us some insight on what it has taken to get the Shanghai Tower built, and how Building Information Modeling (BIM) has played a crucial role from concept to construction. Jump ahead for our fascinating interview with Chris!

Via Inhabitat

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OCT Design Museum by Studio Pei-Zhu

The inspiration for the project comes from both the location being close to the bay and from the needs of the program, a surreal space for design exhibitions. The Oct design museum focuses mainly on fashion shows, product design, and conceptual automotive shows. The goal was to create a space that is surreal to the subject matter but also transcendental in surrounding and feeling. The design of the interior relies on a continuous white curving surface that casts no shadows and has no depth.

The result is a surreal borderless space that seems to go on into the infinite, similar to the feeling of a James Turrell installation. The effect is like being in a cloud or dense fog. The building becomes a blank surreal background, with only small triangular windows scattered randomly, as if they were birds in flight. Typically an automobile looks very heavy but in this limitless space it becomes weightless, letting its curves, shadows, and intense colors become the focal point of the show. The first floor of the building holds the entry lobby and café, while the second and third is mainly exhibition space. Storage space is spread out evenly through the floors, with movable walls allow the exhibition spaces to be very flexible in scale and function.

The exterior form of the building is a direct reflection of the continuous curving space inside. The smooth organic form has a similar surreal yet transcendental effect when seen outside in its urban setting. Set into its landscape, the building’s form seems to float above the ground, as if it was not from this planet. Being 300 meters from the ocean, we took inspiration in the smooth stones found along the beach. It is like a purely smooth stone cast into an overly saturated urban setting.

Via Contemporist

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On the Edge Ten Architects from China

The People’s Republic of China is currently the largest market for architectural services in the world, and its cities—sites of the greatest economic migration in modern history—are rapidly being transformed into rival centers for global trade and commerce. On the Edge: Ten Architects from China is an unprecedented critical anthology on new architecture in China, the first book of its kind devoted to the development and maturation of an indigenous approach to modern architecture and urbanism in China. Focusing on the work of ten young design firms based in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, On the Edge documents the rise of a new aesthetic, the evolution of contemporary architectural practice, and the irresistible, global aspirations of an emerging avant-garde.Included in the book are completed buildings, proposed projects, and urban master plans by Gary Chang of Edge HK, Rocco Yim, Zi and Ming Zhang of Original Design Studio, Li Hu of Open Architecture Studio, Ai We Wei, Qingyun Ma of MADA, Jiakun Liu, and Yung Ho Chang, who is the present dean of the Architecture School at MIT

About the Author

Ian Luna is the author and editor of four books on architecture, urbanism, and design for Rizzoli: Kohn Pederson Fox: Architecture and Urbanism, Volume 3; New New York: Architecture of a City; Imagining Ground Zero (with Suzanne Stephens and Ron Broadhurst); and Retail: Architecture and Shopping.

Buy the book On the Edge Ten Architects from China at Amazon

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Architecture in China

Great Leap Forward: Contemporary Architecture in China The past five years have seen a revolution in Chinese architecture?the emergence of independent designers, and a number of new stars?and above all new and interesting buildings that are not the product of direct Western influence. These developments have laid the groundwork for an indigenous modernity that differentiates itself from outside schools as well as eschewing the temptation to put a “Chinese-style” roof on ordinary office blocks. The fact that Beijing has been chosen to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games has been more than a catalyst for the development of high-quality contemporary architecture in China. Major foreign firms like OMA/Rem Koolhaas or Herzog & de Meuron are participating in the design of buildings that will have functions during the Games, but Chinese architects, too, have been mobilized in this massive effort to prepare the country for an unprecedented level of world-wide attention.

Buy the book Architecture in China at Amazon

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Vanke Triple V Gallery

From Ministry of Design via contemporist, a Singapore and Beijing based studio, this project in Tianjin has three primary functions; a lounge space, a gallery and a tourist information centre. As an iconic building for promoting tourism it stands out, but how it works in practice would be interesting to find out. The relationship with its outside spaces seems poorly thought out too, confirming its ‘iconic’ desires – looks good in photos though!

Via EIGHTSIX

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Chinese Design

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“Rather than attempting to copy a traditional Chinese garden in a modern, formal and rather symmetrical space, elements of historic Chinese gardens are incorporated in a symbolic way. Cool greenery and the sound of water create a welcome antithesis to the urban world’s noise and congestion.”

Read the article at People’s Daily Online

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