The visitor center in Hengshan Temple, designed by Latitude Studio, aims to promote tourism in the historical-rural area of Southwest Datong, China. The project hopes to respect the ancestral history of the site while providing a modern architecture from which to appreciate the history of China.
Read on for more information after the break.
The Hengshan Temple is a monument of the Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD) and holds strong traditional and ancestral ties to the site. The site is also characterized by a dam which is going to promote an aquatic recreation area for visitors to the site.
In this scenario, the architectural purpose is focused on how to utilize the distance between the lowest elevation of the dam and the highest. The focus on this characteristic creates the possibility of taking the full potential of what it would be otherwise a basic element –a stair- and make of it an architectural opportunity to create a vertical promenade.
This promenade is materialized away from picturesqueness that would be created in the misunderstanding of this characteristic enterprise. It is looked for a new different model of approach; one which is closer to the ancestral sense of the local heritage than the literal reproduction of the local forms.
Architects: Latitude Studio with BIAD
Location: Southwest Datong, Shanxi Province, China
Year: 2010
Status: Concept design
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- Courtesy of Latitude Studio
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- Courtesy of Latitude Studio
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- Courtesy of Latitude Studio
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- Courtesy of Latitude Studio
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- plan 01
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- plan 02
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- plan 03
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- plan 04
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- section 01
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- diagram 01
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- diagram 02
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- diagram 03
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- diagram 04
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- diagram 05
I don’t know if the dam is part of this project but it ruins everything.
It looks like last dungeon of the video games.
however, quite cool.