Inspired by insects, the Bug Dome is a small sheltered area used during the SZHK Biennale for underground bands, poetry reading, and discussions, and after the Biennale as an un-official gathering place for illegal workers from the Chinese countryside. Built on a wasteland of a ruined building site in-between the Shenzhen City Hall and an illegal workers camp, the structure is intended to reveal the connection we share with nature: ”In large scale, if we learn to understand the connection what the hundreds of millions of hands that are now migrating from the rural China to the modern cities might bring along them, we might be able to ruin the industrial city. We might be able to make the city to be part of nature.”
“The design process was painful. We were all ripping the design to all three individual directions but in the end we gave up and the design became the boss and we learned to listen. Architecture gives the commands and architects listen,” explained Marco Casagrande, Hsieh Ying-chun and Roan Ching-yueh who make up WEAK!
The building is made of bamboo and was adapted to meet the site-specific conditions. Inside the cocoon, “a weak retreat for the modern man to escape from the strength of the exploding urbanism”, a small area allows people to come together, and a space to share a fire is also provided.
“What comes to architectural control, we must give up in order for the nature to step in and for the human nature as part of nature.”
For the complete photo set, visit here.
2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture
Architects:
Hsieh Ying-chun 謝英俊
Marco Casagrande 馬可·卡薩格蘭
Roan Ching-yueh 阮慶岳
Construction Work:
Chen, Jiang Zhou, Leo Cheng, Marco Casagrande, Nikita Wu, Shao Lei, Wei Jia-kuan, Wei Jing-Ke
Design Assistant:
Frank Chen
Local Knowledge:
Wei Jia-kuan
Wei Jing-Ke
Location: Shenzhen, China
Site: 3000 m2 waste land, ruined building site
Building footprint: 120 m2
Materials: bamboo, wood, gravel, recycled concrete
Completed: 2009
