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Architects: SWOOP STUDIO
- Area: 90 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:STUDIO FANG
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Lead Architect: Wen Shen
Text description provided by the architects. The site of the project is typical of a common high-rise office building, with its corner location on the floor providing plenty of natural light. The client required two counseling rooms, a lounge area, a big salon,a reception area, and an office. The challenge of the design is firstly how to organize such a variety of functions in a constrained site, while still keeping the space bright, uncluttered, and open; secondly is how to create a special atmosphere which suitable for Psychological Counselling, through simple materials and construction methods, given the limited cost.
Our spatial game in the project unfolds from a curve on the plan and two curves on the section. The design intention is to regulate the scale of otherwise confined rooms through the in-between space created by the curves and other orthogonal boxes, giving each space a certain openness with unlimited boundaries.
The curved wall of the plan responds to the existing corners of the site, creating a small “gallery”. The openings on it reveal a series of spaces behind; while the horizontal opening at the top of the surface unites the ceiling, allowing light from the periphery to enter the core. The in-between space between the curved walls and the surrounding walls is treated as openings and niches of varying depth and direction, either linking or blurring the boundaries between the spaces.
The sectional curved ceilings serve to adjust the scale of the space. They’re lightly disengaged from the existing complex boundaries, maintaining their own integrity as a canopy. Due to construction beams and equipment pipelines, the curved ceiling redefines the spatial scale in section: from 2.95 meters at the high point to 2.2 meters at the edge. The light could diffuse into the interior through the gaps in the height, and the depressed curved ceiling makes the otherwise normal room appear more open and spacious. The complex enclosure of existing buildings is transformed into a shell of a world full of unseen imaginary spaces.
Materials join the game in the way of abstract color composition. We use glossy and rough textured materials on different surfaces to adjust the ambiance of light nuances. The white stucco ceiling coverings and white PVC floor not only make the space brighter and softer but also create a sense of wholeness blurring the scale; The walls between ceilings and floor are painted in light green and aqua blue stucco paintings, defining a number of small places. The walls with light green seem to evoke our collective memories of school or hospital in our childhood. At the same time, the composition of light green and aqua-blue surfaces transforms this space into a new atmosphere of calmness, which helps people to stay in those small corners of the world. The visible and invisible in-between spaces shifting on the boundary of each stable place, are like the pieces of dreams transformed from subconsciousness. They help people to begin exploring their individually secret interior world psychologically.
