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Xixi Wetland Art Museum / Studio Pei-Zhu
by Studio Pei-Zhu
Chinese Studio Pei-Zhu has designed the Xixi Wetland Art Museum located in a rural nature preserved near Hangzhou, China. The concept stems from the interaction between building and nature. As leaves fall from trees they arrive naturally on the ground. The resulting form creates shelter against the earth.
This design creates the genuine qualities of scattered, fallen leaves and shelter through five buildings. Some leaves overlap and attach with other leaves. One leaf remains separate, yet still unites in visual language with the linked leaves. The four linked structures house functions for business, recreation, a hotel, restaurant, and reception. The single standing leaf is the art museum.
The buildings are covered by light colored, reflective zinc panels that have a brushed finish, resulting in a diffused and soft reflection of their interactions with people and nature. this blending influences a person as they experience the museum. All colors, light, and details merge into a continuous representation that is not recognizable as individual objects, but are distinguished as a uniform and natural image.
Seen at designboom. More images after the break.
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18 comments »
QUE VENGAN MAS PROJECTOS COMO ESTE
The concept stems from the interaction between building and nature…..Yeah right!
I have to say, the concept is good, but the reselution of it gets completely lost when ‘light colored, reflective zinc panels that have a brushed finish’ are used as it loses it connection with the nature rooted concept.
If this is interactive with the environment, then everything built with zinc panel and glass can be interactive.
where’s the beef?
no jokes – it’s a complete copy of my 1st year schoolproject
one of its designer came to ur uni during crit session..
@Lie
u dind’t pass! did u?
the architectural resolution tells nothing about your responsiveness in a sensitive natural site, rather unfold your ego to do sth completely different from surroundings.
I would appreciate more if the architect says “this is what I interpret the building and nature in a completely new way by using contrasting color and materials”
Come on great Chinese architect! Please be honest to yourself and to your audience.
I cant understand why static objects like buildings have to be streamlined so much as though it is a plane or a racing car! by the same token, imagine designing a sports car like the parthenon or falling waters – will it work?
I have a problem with architecture based on concepts like shells, leaves, or pebbles. The issue is scale, any Engineer will tell you that sturctures wont work the same when shrunk or expanded. Id say the same thing applies to creating architecture based on tiny things like the ‘fallen leaves’ used here. A building 2 stories high should never be based on an form 2cm high, it just doesnt work.
Though i must say if you told me the forms were based on massive rocks that had been erroded by the winds and rain then i think id probably like this building.
@Shankar, nice comment, very valid point, but it must be said that the streamlined designs do create a dynamic feeling of movement and fluidity for the viewer that the pantheon cant. Its kinda like sports cars too, its important that they look fast parked in front of the restaurant, maybe more important than how fast they go on the road. Perhaps looking fast is the taste of the times?
zhu pei does all kinds of styles. this is yet another style plucked from somewhere, not digested, not internalised. sad state if he becomes the icon for chinese architecture.
The varying style can be explained by the fact that they employ young designers from all over the world who lacks understanding in Chinese culture and believes that any crazy things can be realised in China. Chinese architecture needs architects who knows how to do things in the Chinese way, sadly many foreign-educated Chinese architects do not know how to do that. Worth taking a look at standardarchitecture.com, a Beijing based studio with much cultural and environmentally responsive projects.
what is the “chinese way” of making architecture?
Not good. Not good at all. Leaves? Where?
The explanation on the concept is very force, how many days of the year do you see falling leaves?
a weak and crude project