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Architects: Atelier Guo
- Area: 10 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Ziqian Wang
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Lead Architect: Liaohui Guo
Text description provided by the architects. Built on the riverside terrace, Fire Bird Tower is a central installation for the 2022 New Year's celebration at Yangshuo Sugar House, which will be set ablaze to welcome the new year. The site, where the installation is located, was once a dock for the old sugar factory to deliver goods and is now the space of the Sugar House facing Li River, making it an iconic place.
Touching the ground lightly, Fire Bird Tower consists of four layers that gradually decrease in size from the bottom up. The first floor forms a space for people to rest and roast around the fire pit, and the upper floors gradually shrink to form a vertical volume. The center of the volume is completely open to guide people's sight upward while sitting underneath.
The triangular shape of the slab eliminates the sense of volume by adopting the language of slabs, between which the connection is minimal, forming a rotating, rising, and light appearance. The cable system inside and outside the tower reinforces this feature, ensuring the structural stability of the tower and unifying the overall sense, outlining the silhouette similar to the tower of traditional Dong villages.
The tower shows the character of the wings of a bird, with a calm blue exterior and a silver interior, reminding people of the traditional Jinji Dance which usually perform during celebrations. Thus an atmosphere of folk celebration is translated in an architectural way.
