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Architects: change architects
- Area: 1500 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Qingshan Wu
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Lead Architect: Qiu Jiang
Architecture that Grows out of the Great Nature
Chaohu Natural and Cultural Center is the core public supporting facility developed by OCT Group for Chaohu Bantang Hot Spring Town. On the north side of the city, Juzhang Moutain stretches for tens kilometers from northeast to southwest. Located at the foot of the mountain, the building is regarded as a landmark grows out of the juncture of local natural environment and city life, demonstrating cultural heritage and future lifestyle.
Form Deduced from Natural Elements
The overall plan and elevations of the building are projected by the external shape of the mountain and the land contour. When comes to this individual building block, the architects began to carry out fascinating and creative imagination about a geological movement caused by a worm wiggling in the ground. As worms crawl through, a path is formed as the boundary of the inside and outside of the building. The wormhole shaped by drilling is the node where to insert a viewing platform. The curve morphological shape of the building is a figurative representation of the existing mountain. The steel structure with rigid deflection of the whole building implicitly reveals the beauty of the power in earth. The project seems to be squeezed out of the ground by natural forces underneath the crust, which is an abstract expression of the three-dimensional profile of the geological space. With a whole coverage of green plants over the roof, the building is like a natural mountain exists on the site. The architects slightly uncover the ground to spontaneously reveal the space.
A Grand Section of the Environment, Carrier of Natural Elements
The undulating skyline of building perfectly blends in the 100-meters long silhouette of Juzhang Mountain, pretending to be pulled by mountains and squeezed by the movement of tectonic plates simultaneously. The inertia is continuously affecting the growth of the building without notice. There are native mountains and wild pools existing in the original context. The building only makes sense when the intervention is dramatically reshaping the stie. Without a clear boundary between the inside and outside, neither the roof and ground, it is hard to tell the building but a part of the environment. In the winter, temperature can be felt from the building cover with snow. In the summer night, sound of insects can be hear from green shadows of mountains.
Tangible Architecture, Invisible Border
As a part of the endless nature, boundary of the building is the random moment when walking in the environment.
Ramp as the Entry
The ramp extends at half-air level outside the front is the first pathway entering the building, which slowly leads to a visually exhilarating dome-shaped shell space.
Landscape Step as the Entry
Landscape step of the empty square facing the roof over the road is the second pathway, leading to the same dome space.
Roof as the Entry
The roof over the municipal road is also a footbridge connecting the north and south plots, walking over which to enjoy the view of distant mountains and entering the dome.
Big Space under the Dome
A large public platform and double-height space perpendicular to the dome is formed by the intersection of two shells, one is the functional space of the building and the other is the grey space. The dome becomes the most spiritual place where the building reshapes the nature, when these two opposite shells are cutting and framing the view of external environment.
Usability Lies in Its Non-being
This building is completed by the nature itself by empowering the architects to reshape and form the space under a shell. It is saying in the ‘Dao De Jing’ of Laozi that, ‘When moulding clay to make a vessel, the void inside makes it useful. When chiseling out windows and doors to make a room, the void inside makes it a living space.’ This is a high-level architectural philosophy that architecture is born and became a carrier at the moment when it is unused and empty. The shell of this building ‘spontaneously’ created by itself is ‘unconsciously’ filled with unexpected natural elements, which surprisingly reshapes the environment.
An Exhibition of Natural Reflection after the Rain
The semicircular opening on the shell is like a window to the distant mountains, which could be completed by reflection of the rain falling on the platform.
Silhouette of the Place
There are rich and free curves everywhere tailoring the external environment. A perfect performance of the nature is made during the process of meandering in the building by connecting these film-like moments of silhouette altogether.
Open Theater
Boundaries of the sunken theater are the walls shaped like the section of mountains. There will be outdoor performances held here in the future.
Sunken Space
The visual extinction point of the theater is the sinking water under the double-height space under the dome, where the natural rain is collected. When the rain is drained and water disappears, it can also serve as a small stage for performances.
Section of the Crust
The shell of building is shaped as the distant mountains, while the space underneath is created by the movement of tectonic plates. In between the shell and sunken space, there is a large open platform and a double-height space enclosed by retaining walls, where to feel the power of geological space. The section of the building is same as the one of crust with void upper part and solid lower part.
The Wormhole
The continuous outdoor circulation over the whole building roof starts from the bridge crossing the road on the north side to the platform under the dome, and continues to the wormhole at the southwest corner. It is not only an independent but complete path, but also the boundary of indoor and outdoor. The geological space is deduced from a simulation of the dynamic trace of a worm wiggling in the soil, so as the circulation and boundary. Responding to another philosophical meaning of the word ‘wormhole’, this route starts from the ground level to the roof, and finally back to the outdoor ground through the wormhole.
A Square Box as the Start and End
A viewing box is straightforwardly inserted into the curvy outline of this building, which is the only touch done by the architects. It vertically connects the space inside and provides a direct view towards the mountains. The architects tried to hide their existence through the design, except in the last dialogue with the mountains, playing a completely different role with the nature. This is the start and the end, which goes back to the first question at the beginning of design: what is the relationship between human beings and the nature? Let's leave this 10% of controversy.
