Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE

Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior PhotographyDongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Glass, FacadeDongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Facade, GlassDongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Interior Photography, GlassDongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - More Images+ 25

  • Architects: CU Office
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  1042
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Weiqi Jin, Fei Che
  • Cheif Architects: Fei Che, Xuefeng Zhang
  • Design Team: Fei Che, Xuefeng Zhang, Lu Zhang, Gaojie Mu, Jinping Liang
  • Project Intern: Yaowen Zhang, Nana Wu
  • Engineering Consultant: Shiguang Zhao
  • Local Design Institute: China Urban Construction Design & Research Institute Co.LTD
  • Client: China foundation for poverty alleviation
  • City: Linxia
  • Country: China
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Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography
northwestern aerial view. Image © Weiqi Jin

Place and Site
Dongxiang Culture Center is built in Maxiang village, Dongxiang autonomous county, Gansu province, China. On three sides (except for the south side) is the village surrounded by Tao River , a tributary of Yellow River. It is located on the Loess Plateau with an altitude of about 1,700 meters. The village is not only the settlement of Dongxiang people who are Muslims but also a village of the Han people. Due to its close proximity to the Tibetan area, there are also many Tibetan Buddhism temples in the region. Being a small village but full of rich and diverse history and culture, Maxiang is a extremely rare place in countryside with Muslim mosques, a Taoist temple and a Tibetan Buddhism temple. Therefore, how to involve the newly-built culture center in this multi-cultural complexity of space and time is the focus for the architect.

Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Aerial View Photography
aerial view. Image © Weiqi Jin
Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography
culture center and temple. Image © Weiqi Jin

In a context of the human history stacked like thick sedimentary rocks, Dongxiang Culture Center was gently placed into it not with a historic vocabulary but in a modern way. The culture center is supposed to be a reader of local culture rather than a narrator. In fact, no building can tell such numerous stories and it becomes a listening building.

Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Concrete
historical landmark. Image © Weiqi Jin
Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Concrete
west facade. Image © Weiqi Jin

After crossing the Loess Plateau all the way and turning over several mountains, Maxiang Village surrounded by the Tao River suddenly comes into your view, appearing like a paradise. Entrusted by China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation in 2018, Prof. Dr. Che Fei investigated the village and finally suggested to choose the current location as the site of the culture center. It has been decided not to put the culture center in the open space outside the village but to embed it in the fabric of the village. The chosen site was the former site of Jixiang Temple before its relocation. The existing site has become a vacant lot except for the gate left from the former temple. Not far away flowing Tao river in the east, closely in the north standing the newly built Jixiang Temple and the farm houses of one part of the village distributing in the southwest surrounded by far mountains, the project site encompasses an unique natural environment of big mountains, river valleys, Loess Plateau and riveside.  

Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Door, Facade
east entrance. Image © Weiqi Jin
Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Interior Photography, Glass
stairs. Image © Weiqi Jin

Space and morphology
The architecture typology of farm houses in Maxiang village is mostly flat roofed 1- or 2-story building with a courtyard in the center fenced by tall and thick walls which makes its spatial form introverted. Even public spaces such as mosques or temples are also inward spaces surrounded by walls. the culture center being built in the center of the village is creating an open and communicative space shared by tourists, artists and local villagers. As an extroverted public building, the concept of the culture center is to reverse the introversion of the local traditional courtyard into an extroversion not only to present the historic memory of the village fabric but also to create the extroversion of the spatial morphology.

Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Interior Photography, Wood, Glass
interior space. Image © Weiqi Jin
Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Interior Photography, Glass
1F facing the courtyard. Image © Weiqi Jin

The architecture concept of the culture center originates from reversing the outside and the inside of the Dongxiang farm-house courtyard. The original courtyard is transformed into functional spaces such as exhibition halls while the enclosed buildings are transformed into public spaces such as corridors, that makes an active and open public building in the center of Maxiang Village. It will profoundly change the spatial morphology of the entire village, becoming a core connecting the rural roads which will gradually transform into streets as a result. It is believed that hotels and other service industries will appear in the surrounding in the near future which will hopefully change the existing only-agriculture-dominated economic situation.

Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Facade, Glass
south facade. Image © Weiqi Jin
Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Glass, Facade
facade. Image © Weiqi Jin

On the second floor of the culture center, its spatial form is reversed again and it is restored to an original local courtyard style. The exhibition space composed of connecting corridors surrounds the open-air courtyard through which visitors on the second floor will perceive the spatial experience of Dongxiang traditional courtyard buildings. The fifth façade displayed on the roof of the culture center is also considered to be integrated with the surrounding buildings. The staircase space connecting the first floor and the second floor becomes the transition of the extroverted space on the first floor and the introverted space on the second floor.

Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE - Exterior Photography, Facade, Glass, Concrete
south facade . Image © Weiqi Jin

Project gallery

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Project location

Address:Maxiang Village, Dongxiang autonomous county, Gansu, China

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Dongxiang Culture Center / CU OFFICE" 17 Jan 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/931869/dongxiang-culture-center-cu-office> ISSN 0719-8884

© Weiqi Jin

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