Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab

Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Exterior PhotographyTower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Exterior PhotographyTower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Image 4 of 33Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Interior Photography, KitchenTower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - More Images+ 28

Huzhou, China
  • Architects: Jumping House Lab
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  12
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Zhi Xia
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Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Exterior Photography
Southwest view. Image © Zhi Xia

A Small Artist Community. The tiny tower is located at the corner of a small artist community hidden in groves of bamboos in a large paddy field. The community consists of four commonly seen one-floor houses, each with a dual-pitched roof and renovated. Apart from these dwellings, there is a small pond and a paved yard. The community provides various spaces for artists’ living, working, exhibiting and get-togethers; whereas the tiny tower is where the artists would head for when their work requires a more spiritual space. Other times it could serve as a unique guest room.

Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Exterior Photography
Watch the paddy field. Image © Zhi Xia
Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Exterior Photography
Open to the paddy field. Image © Zhi Xia

High Off The Ground. While the community is hidden in bamboos, the small tower, braced by a seemingly random wooden support arranged according to clear construction logic, goes up to 6 metres high off the ground, providing a view above the bamboo groves. On scorching summer days, climb up the two ladders and get inside the small tower, and summer breezes are all around. Such an experience could be a pleasant escape from this world.

Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Exterior Photography
The view towards the paddy field. Image © Zhi Xia
Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Image 27 of 33
Section
Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Interior Photography
The half for meditation and the half for views. Image © Zhi Xia

Three Views. This 3.2m * 3.8m off-the-ground small room that hides from the world offers the visitor three distinct views: a wild view towards the paddy field; an upward view towards the sky for meditation; and a long, narrow horizontal view towards the yard – while enjoying their tea, the visitor could see pine trees in the front or overlook the ponds. These views have decided the appearance and layout of the small tower.

Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Image 4 of 33
The view towards the sky. Image © Zhi Xia
Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Interior Photography
The view towards the sky. Image © Zhi Xia

Two Distinct Experiences. Inside the small tower, there is a wall dividing the space into an ‘inward’ half and an ‘outward’ half, each establishing its own atmosphere and therefore a particular experience: the inward half and the outward half, the shady half and the bright half, the half for meditation and the half for views.

Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Interior Photography
Summer afternoon. Image © Zhi Xia
Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Interior Photography, Kitchen
The horizontal view. Image © Zhi Xia

Uncompleted. For various reasons, the small tower is completed while the community’s renovation has been suspended at 80% of its completion. The uncompleted 20% could be a symbol of the distance between the ideal and the reality. Such flawed reality hence coincidentally left the tower an absolute spiritual space.  

Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Interior Photography
The view towards the paddy field. Image © Zhi Xia
Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab - Exterior Photography
The view above the bamboo groves. Image © Zhi Xia

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Cite: "Tower for Meditation and Views / Jumping House Lab" 27 Jan 2021. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/955663/tower-for-meditation-and-views-jumping-house-lab> ISSN 0719-8884

High off the ground. Image © Zhi Xia

冥想守望塔 / 跳房子建筑工作室

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