A new Chinese art centre cuts a sculptural figure in the heart of a leafy park in the city of Guiyang in the country's Guizhou Province. AYDC Public Art Center is the work of dynamic architecture studio Atelier Xi, founded by Chen Xi and part of our 2021 Wallpaper* Architects Directory. The project was conceived as a 'comprehensive' public art complex, AYDC standing for 'A Yun Duo Cang', meaning 'our land of dreams' in the local Yi language of Guizhou.
Discover this Chinese art centre by Atelier Xi
The design, Xi explains, was imagined to bring together art, nature and community. Providing a family of physical spaces for displays and events, and directly connecting with the park's leafy landscape through its open nature, the project feels at the same time flowing and finely-chiselled. Its form, the architect says, 'is inspired by the spiritual essence of Guizhou’s mountainous landscape. Here, people and ideas can grow freely within nature.'
The scheme's openness and easily adaptable floor plan also responds to the part of the brief that required flexibility; the interior can be used for a variety of events, both planned and spontaneous, within the local community. The project's volumes aim to craft its own artificial landscape that echoes the green surroundings while adding a layer of daily human activity.
Through this thinking, three distinct sections emerge: the rectilinear Xima Library, set against ginkgo leaves by the water and created as a quiet, contemplative reading space; the minimalist, meditative Ginkgo Chapel, nestled among trees on a hillside; and the centrally-placed Dali Stage, formed by the negative imprint of an invisible arch, and serving as focal point for the adjacent plaza, used for resting and gathering.
A common design language and materiality (namely, a porous white travertine stone exterior skin and interior cladding made of curved stainless-steel plates) brings all the different elements together as a coherent whole. The different treatment of the surface texture, from the rougher stone to the mirror-polished metal, adds a pleasing sharpness, artistically tracing the edges of the crisp volumes.
'As the seasons change, the landscape evolves: the ginkgo forest cycles through vibrant tones of green, gold and amber shades, harmonising with the three pavilions to create an ever-changing, immersive symphony of nature and architecture,' Xi writes in his project statement.
'Ultimately, in the AYDC project, minimal architectural gestures attempt to unleash the site’s full vitality. Through sculptural and artful interventions, the design weaves together the built form, natural landscape, and local cultural memory – redefining the role of architecture as a vessel for experience, imagination and community.'
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