The Church on Tidal Flats / CWXD

Curated by 韩爽 - HAN Shuang

Architects: CWXD
Area: 1628 m²
Year: 2017
Photographs:zimo
Lead Architect: Wenxing Chen

“No, not any more. Every beautiful memory that worth cherish is no longer exist. I asked myself, why should I look for it if I know it is gone? This is the contradiction, the contradiction of the love of my hometown from deep down in my heart. What happen in the past is in the past, and what is left is a new sorrow? Nostalgia is an echo that cannot be kept, and also a beauty that cannot be captured.”
——Liang Heng

The Church on Tidal Flats / CWXD - Exterior Photography, Windows — east facade. Image © zimo

Douyuan, Fuqing, grandmother’s house, a small fishing village located at the south side of Fuzhou. Two hours’ drive, the homesickness of fathers’ became nostalgia. The love for the hometown is not only due to the love of the loved ones, but also the beautiful memory of the taste of a bowl of soup from the elders. The fishing village has developed rapidly, as if all the things from the past are not worth remember. The township remains the same, but the village has become more and more strange. I hope that such an object can bare the common memories of the villagers, to record the joy and sadness of each villager, and the deep feeling of the hometown.

There is a temple located in the highest point of the village. The adjacent Catholic church is hidden in the mountains. The new Christian church is born to the sea. A small fishing village enriches the status quo of Chinese religious belief. Everything that teaches people to be true, good, and beautiful is true and perfect. The sea can hold the water from thousands of rivers, it is big because of its capacity. This is the kindness that should be born to the sea. Religious buildings are symbolized and integrated into the lives of villagers in a peaceful manner. Here, regardless of the sect, only talk about the truth, goodness and beauty of faith.

The pillars of the ash hall in the village are decorated in the form of koslin pillars, and Chinese aesthetic values collapse from the countryside to the ground. This is not the worship of foreign countries, but the denial of self origin. What needs to be inherited is not only the material content, but also the original values. Architecture attempts to express the affirmation of self origin by building place spirit. Do not follow the crowd, do not follow the flow, let the root values take root in the hearts of the villagers, it is not without vitality, but in a variety of dazzling stimulation appears "powerless". The spirit of place constructed by architecture can arouse the resonance and thinking of villagers and visitors. The core of architecture is the extension of the world outlook, values and outlook on life from designers, builders to users. The self-confidence of individuals and even the national self-confidence are all from the affirmation of the root cause.

The Church on Tidal Flats / CWXD - Interior Photography, Windows, Chair — preparation room on 3F. Image © zimo

The territoriality of the past was limited by the structure and materials under the influence of climate and logistics. Under the help of today's developed information and logistics, construction and materials tend to be similar. The use of structure and materials to express territoriality may be superficial, and the expression of regional shifts from direct perception to introverted natural dialogue and spiritual flaunting. On the one hand, the natural dialogue is due to the transformation of the image of the sea and the sky, eliminating the boundary between the wall and the roof; on the other hand, due to the “defensive” dwellings formed by the natural awe, the building’s physical volume follows the construction logic of the local dwellings. On one side, the spiritual slogan is due to the gratitude of the sea, the space creates a feeling like the embrace of a mother; on the other side, due to the touch of the villagers' spirit, the building presents a real and positive state.