China Cereals and Oils Exhibition Center / Archermit

Curated by 韩双羽 - HAN Shuangyu

Architects: Archermit
Area: 1165 m²
Year: 2019
Photographs:Yutao Feng, Da Hua Mao

Text description provided by the architects. The project is located in Tangjianian, Xinhua Village, Jinjiang, Chongzhou city, Sichuan Province, where is about 50 kilometers (one-hour driving) away from the center of Chengdu. This is a typical Linpan in the west of Sichuan. The exhibition center and many Linpan are dotted between thousands of fertile fields. The forest is in the field, the courtyard is in the forest, the forest is planted with bamboo, white walls and green tiles, chickens and dogs, and small Bridges and running water can be seen everywhere. The original trees on the site are preserved and enclosed with the architecture to form four courtyards of different sizes. The trees and courtyards integrate with each other, creating the artistic conception of ”Place with a yard in the forest and a forest in the yard”. The classic Linpan image of "forest in the field and yard in the forest" is fully displayed in this place.

"Return" was the core architectural strategy at the beginning of the design of the exhibition center. Most of the ground floor of the architecture is suspended to return space to nature and the people involved in it. The suspended design of the ground floor laid a good foundation for many later interesting designs, such as the courtyard in the field, the aerial courtyard, the entrance corridor bridge, the roof joyride..., etc.

For the continuation of the original image of western Sichuan Lin Pan courtyard space, the main body is broken up into five smaller and independent spaces scattered in the site, the original trees surrounded and five construction yards of various forms, even the suspended idea won several aerial three-dimensional courtyards first up, the ground split out clever into four-yard into nine, We introduce fields, paddy fields, planting pools, trees, and other elements into the courtyard, and different elevations and shapes of the courtyard create different spatial experiences.

The five independent spaces are connected together by a ramp and the external corridor. The external walls close to the ramp and the corridor are solid, while the external elements where the trees and rice fields can be seen are full floor-to-ceiling glass, forming a combination space with solid inside and void outside, cadenced, moving, private and independent. Many public buildings in rural areas are left idle and abandoned due to various management problems in the later stage. In the design of the exhibition center, we pre-planned the possibility of more functions, operations, and separation, so as to ensure that it can thrive after birth and be loved and enjoyed by everyone.

Green tiles, white walls, wood, long eaves, and patio are the most common elements of western Sichuan folk dwellings. We combine the modern elements of a curved sloping roof and full floor-to-ceiling glass to create an open, transparent, light and free, simple and elegant, pastoral poetic place.

The courtyard, square, and corridor formed by the suspended ground floor of the building are covered by the wide eaves and become the ideal place for nearby residents to enjoy the cool, dance, and play. The rice planting pond designed at the entrance has been turned into a shallow pool due to the construction mistake, which has become a paradise for children to play in the water by a strange combination of circumstances. During the construction process, some confrontation and compromise can sometimes bring the unexpected harvest.

We integrated the bridges of western Sichuan Lin Pan, eaves and courtyards of western Sichuan architectures, the leisurely culture of western Sichuan people with elements such as the entrance ramp, aerial ring corridor, scissors ramp, and roof yard, make the "aerial courtyard" into a paradise where people love to play, dinner, or have a rest for a walk and naive children enjoy.

Traditional Linpan in western Sichuan integrates with people's lifestyle and life concepts nowadays organically. On the basis of meeting people's usage habits, we hope that the exhibition center, like other surrounding Linpans, grows from this vast farmland, integrates with nature, and is a modern Linpan scattered in the field. We also hope that the exhibition center can not only meet the functions of grain oil exhibitions but also become a daily living place for the surrounding residents and a community center of the neighborhood and village. This is the greater value it gives back to the land -- the value of the return.