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Category: Cultural

London Cross Pavilion

London Cross Pavilion

Design: 2015-2018
Construction: 2018-2019

• Winner of the 2020 AIANY Award of Honor – Projects.
• Shortlisted for the 2020/2021 World Architecture Festival for Display – Completed Buildings.

The London Cross Pavilion stands at the intersection of minimal and cerebral, of material and space: dualities emanating from the Richard Serra sculpture within. On the sloping estate of a prominent art collector in Bedford, New York, the pavilion stands among many large-scale sculptures, and in direct proximity to two other Serra steelworks, reddish-orange from oxidation and curvilinear in form. In contrast, London Cross (2014) remains unexposed to the elements within the pavilion, the two weatherproof steel plates retaining their rich, dark grey with mill scales intact, as they assert a rigid orthogonality on the space about.

Balanced on its edge, the lower steel plate of London Cross runs diagonally between two corners of the room, while its counterpart, perched atop with a point load at midpoint, runs at right angles to it. To this extent, the lower plate defines a plane that bisects the pavilion into two galleries, with a bilateral symmetry along its axis. Across this axis, the two doors to enter each gallery and the two windows of different views are mirrored, as well as the upper plate in its regular geometry.

The exception to this bilateral symmetry is the sawtooth roof, with skylights facing 20 degrees east of True North. The views established from the South gallery through these skylights are reminiscent of the outdoor installations of Serra, while the indirect lighting through double-glazed windows separated by angled diffusers and insulated with roof panels is distributed optimally throughout the year. The hard edges of the steel sculptural plates are countered by the consequent softness of light.

The openings, two doors and two windows that mirror each other across the plane of the lower plate, share a uniform height of nine feet, rising just above the lower beam. On the exterior, this height is delineated by a subtle cutting motion through the vertical panels of the Shou Sugi Ban timber that wraps about the entire facade.

The openings, two doors and two windows that mirror each other across the plane of the lower plate, share a uniform height of nine feet, rising just above the lower beam. On the exterior, this height is delineated by a subtle cutting motion through the vertical panels of the Shou Sugi Ban timber that wraps about the entire facade.

The Shou Sugi Ban process renders the timber panels a deep charcoal-black with distinct lines of inherent textural uniqueness, and refers strongly to the artistic movement of Process Art, to which Serra belonged. The timber panels of the facade, in contrast to preserved mill scales of the steel plates of the sculpture, develop a natural patina with the course of time and weathering. The interior finish consists of hydrated lime plaster, eliminating the need for construction joints to create a smooth, uninterrupted gallery experience.

But the predominant material of the project is the space itself. Even Serra, who spent half a century experimenting with unconventional, industrial materials of rubber, neon and lead before his large-scale installations in steel, considered space to be his “primary material.”

Serra challenges the anthropomorphic space on this ground level; measuring seven feet high, the lower load-bearing plate inhibits the line of vision between the two galleries while retaining strong spatial relations between the two. Where an isolation would result from the convergence of vertical and horizontal elements, the open space just above the head brings an immediate awareness to the presence of the unseen side.

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Anji Play

Design: 2016-2020
Construction: 2018-2022

Nestled in the footsteps of the Yuhua Jinhua mountains in the countryside of Anji county is the new AnjiPlay Kindergarten and International Child Care Center.  Anchoring the education complex comprised of research and teaching centers, an AnjiPlay Museum, convention center and dorms, is the AnjiPlay early childhood kindergarten, the flagship of educator, Ms. Cheng Xueqin’s self-determinate, play based curriculum schools for 3 to 6 year olds.

Love, risk, joy, engagement, reflection are the guiding principles of AnjiPlay.  Maximizing the opportunities for imaginative play and contact with natural elements and phenomena requires a predominant presence of nature embracing a humble architecture. Earth, water, sky, trees, bamboo, hills, tunnels and ditches are among the integrated environmental elements that engage children in endless exploration, allowing each child to take ownership of discovery and learning through “True Play.”

Architecture, is one of the environmental elements that affords complexity in terms of spatial experience and shelter. With the overlapping blending of the natural and architectural elements, new opportunities, phenomena and experiences are constantly created for play and learning.  AnjiPlay architecture though must be in its elemental form, simple enough to allow for phenomena to be experienced, not dictated, trusting and engaging children in learning from their natural environment.

The Anji Campus design is the result of experimental play, following the manner of the 21st century early childhood education movement. Founded by Cheng Xueqin, Anji Play begins with the introduction of “large, minimally structured materials within an open-ended, minimally structured environment” and the right of self-determined play. In exercising these rights to space, freedom, materials and time, the children develop play intentions that manifest themselves in “high degrees of complexity.”

In the same manner that the children, left to their own devices, seek to “eliminate factors that stifle play intentions,” so does the architecture of Anji Campus. The prerequisites to the design process derive from the fundamentals of Cheng Xueqin’s philosophy: children have a right of “access to open-ended environments that do not determine or direct the experience or outcome of play… environments that are carefully designed to maximize discovery and problem solving but not lead to specific outcomes or insights…that allow children to challenge themselves at their own level of self-determined risk…[and] that provide access to the natural world as much as possible.”

In fulfillment of these rights is a neutral architecture with the ecology in the foreground, and a fluidity between the spaces. Located in Anji County in the Zhejiang province of China, the site is diverse in its topography and natural elements.

Within the traditional context analysis arises a natural playscape of five clusters, with a ramp of Anji bamboo connecting. The five clusters dissolve into sixteen homerooms, sharing a common building block but remaining unique in form. The homeroom becomes not only an uninhibited space to play and learn and grow, but a home to its children.

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MuXin Art Museum

Design: 2011-2015
Construction: 2012-2015
Area: 6,700 m2

• Winner of the 2016 AIANYS Award of Merit: Architecture/Institutional.
• Winner of the 2016 German Design Council Iconic Award Best of Best: Museum Architecture.
• Shortlist Finalist for the 2016 World Architecture Festival: Culture/Completed Buildings.
• Winner of the 2015 Concrete Industry Board: Roger H. Corbetta Award of Merit, Out of Country.
• Financial Times – Simon Schama’s 10 Forgotten Wonders of the World
• Artinfo – Top 5 New Museums in Asia 2016

Located in the historic scenic water town, of Wuzhen in northern Zhejiang Province, the 7,000m2 art museum is dedicated to the renowned hometown artist/writer Mu Xin.

Mu Xin, was a complex and inspiring figure, he was not only a celebrated artist of abstract landscapes and paintings but equally accomplished as a scholar, poet and writer.

The building, is not only inspired by the complexity of the artist’s work but also his writing which was deeply impacted by the consecutive imprisonment he experienced during the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970’s and his ultimate exiling to the West. Influenced by these experiences and his scholarly upbringing, Mu Xin created space. Space, not only in the evocative multilayered painting of abstract landscapes but also in his writings reflecting the mental expansion of the mind within real physical constraints.

The ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal nurtured the splendid culture of Wuzhen, and the long historical value of the well preserved city south of Yangtze River. To this day, one experiences a dense landscape of centuries old canals, streets, markets, courtyards, bridges and verandas. Taking a cue from the urban fabric of the 1,000 year old ancient water town of Mu Xin’s childhood, the museum itself is a landscape of intersecting experiences. A series of cast in place colored architectural concrete volumes in varying sectional relationship to the canal and “street,” house these experiences as singular galleries and program elements inviting visitors to wander through the “landscape.”

With the ever changing quality of the spaces created by the intersection of the volumes, “street” boundaries and the water’s edge, the visitor experiences an expansion of space not only in the physical realm but also as a bridge into the complex world of Mu Xin.

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Passage Of Time – Art Park

Passage Of Time – Art Park

Design: 2021-Ongoing

As Serra’s Passage of Time Pavilion serves as the anchor, the overall planning concept of the 15.5 acre art park was to provide a heightened and pure experience of Serra’s sculpture, while keeping construction disturbances of the site to a minimum. The recreationally zoned site, which had been forested with slash pines for paper making, had the trees on the northeast half of the site harvested providing an open expanse. Besides the Passage of Time Pavilion, all amenities such as the reception, rest pavilion, visitor parking, and the large 20,000ft2 event space, which provide ample programming opportunities, were strategically placed on this cleared half of the site, away from the sculpture pavilion. Strategically contoured berms, whose fill will to be taken from the retention pond protecting the surrounding wetlands, provide visual shielding of the pavilion forcing the visitor on a journey to discover the Passage of Time.

To house Serra’s sculpture, unlike the typical pristine white box gallery container, which could be anywhere, or nowhere; we purposefully chose to visually expose the piece to be discovered as one approaches through the existing tree canopy. Thus, celebrating the history of the place, the native wetland, the paper making tradition it cultivated, and the piece’s permanent home. This dialog with the site, as in all of Richard Serra’s site-specific pieces, makes for the most powerful and impactful experience.

The design of the pavilion is deceptively simple yet highly engineered, carefully planned and detailed to heighten the art experience starting from the siting. Like the winding streams and decks that navigate the natural topography in the nearby wetlands, the pavilion is approached from a winding wooden deck, echoing the rhythmic form of the sculpture, weaving between the tree columns, hovering off the ground true to the minimal impact ethos of the development. As one nears the pavilion, the turns become more frequent affording varying glimpses of the sculpture through the columns of the pine forest trunks and the all-glass pavilion façade.

The 270’ long x 55’ wide rectangular pavilion enclosure is entered from glass vestibules located at the concave pockets of the sculpture, one-third the length of the piece from opposing ends. The two entrances thus receive the visitors necessitating ambulation around and through, forcing an intimate experience with the sculpture.

Environmental considerations of the site were also a large factor in the design of the pavilion. From the East-West orientation of the building (the optimal orientation for the locale), to the large asymmetric pitched roof, providing vital shading while shedding the frequent rains, traditional passive strategies found in the vernacular architecture of Florida afforded large expanses of high-performance glazing. To create the desired “glass not there” effect of the envelope, the roof eaves prevent direct sunlight from falling on the 20’ tall low-e insulated glazing units which have three layers of non-reflective coating on low-iron clear glass. Meanwhile, the museum grade light diffusing insulated glass skylight, provides ample diffuse light onto the sculpture, animating the piece as if in a glade within the tree forest, making the Passage of Time a singular phenomenological experience that changes with the time of the day, the seasons, and each visit.

Due to the demands of the Florida Energy Conservation Code, strategic iterations of daylighting and energy simulation modeling were performed with key consultants to create optimal viewing conditions while ensuring code passing performance design. As we chose the energy model performance path permit submission, the existing tree canopy was modeled, aiding in the shading coefficient. For the structure, the large hovering 320’ long by 90’ wide trussed roof is supported by thick walled, high strength steel columns, with varying diameters, placed in a non-repetitive arrangement outside of the glass pavilion enclosure. The placement and column specification has been engineered to minimize the column numbers and sizes, and to blend with the field of tree trunks surrounding the pavilion while resisting the hurricane lateral wind loads.As our research on the surrounding context and demographic trends show, it is increasingly evident that the Passage of Time Art Park strives to be a larger experience. Strategic programming of the site, with events and festivals and additional art amenities, would not only synergize with Serra’s sculpture, but also elevate the experience and value of the Art Park. With the addition of art amenities strategically planned nearby and throughout the “Emerald Coast,” an “art archipelago” will form providing the critical mass to become a world class art destination.

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Palace Museum Exhibition

Palace Museum Exhibition

Design: 2022
Construction: 2022

Beijing, China (Fall, 2022) – Mirroring the Heart of Heaven and Earth:
Ideals and Images in the Chinese Study, an exhibition designed by New York-based firm OLI Architecture, has opened in the Palace Museum. Located in the center of the 72-hectare complex in the Forbidden City, built in the fifteenth century, the museum houses one of the world’s largest collections of ancient Chinese artifacts, calligraphy, paintings, and porcelain. Working closely with curators at The Palace Museum, OLI Architecture has created a space that brings together art and objects spanning from antiquity to contemporary art within the historical architecture.

Housed in the Meridian Gate Galleries, Mirroring the Heart of Heaven and Earth centers on the evolving role of the scholar throughout Chinese history, exploring the relationship to the court, to other scholars, the natural world, and the universe. The exhibition brings together a hundred and six works ranging from antiquities to contemporary art, including books, scrolls, vases, sculptures, paintings, screens, cups, and seals. Alongside the art, the displays also include materials such as brushes, ink, and paper ranging from the 6th to the 21st centuries. The three gallery wings are divided into three chapters titled “Chapter One: Sanctuary of Literature and Music,” “Chapter Two: A Channel for Enlightenment,” and “Chapter Three: A Bond of Companionship.” With themes respectively around a spiritual haven, self-cultivation and the bond between humanity and nature and the appreciation of the finitude of life against the infinity of the universe.

The exhibition encourages a dialogue between heritage objects and modern artworks. For instance, a plaque bearing the words ‘Chamber of the Five Classics’ in the Qianlong Emperor’s hand that typically hangs in an annex hall to the east of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, which served as the imperial study is prominently displayed in the west wing at the beginning of the exhibition. The Five Classics include some of the oldest surviving Chinese texts and are the central works of Confucianism.

Founding Partner Hiroshi Okamoto remarks, “Our office often works with contemporary art and artists. It was a challenge to design this remarkable exhibition with pieces from famous contemporary artists paired with such rare and prominent antiquities. When we started the project the idea of the scroll and the ephemerality of paper became a central concept.

Where the art and antiquities were displayed on a transparent softly glowing surface which flowed from the vertical to the horizontal at the datum of a scholar’s table height giving the viewer an intimate experience.”

Contemporary artists represented include:

– Liu Dan (b. 1953) an ink painter trained in traditional style ink painting, he lives and works in Beijing, China.
– Xu Bing (b. 1955) is a multi-media artist known for his calligraphy and printmaking, who divides his time between New York City and Beijing.
– Xu Lei (b. 1963) an ink painter heavily involved in China’s 1980’s New Wave movement who currently serves as the Art Director of Beijing’s Today Art Museum.
– Bai Ming (b. 1965) a ceramicist and painter who teaches at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
– Young Ho Chang (b. 1956) an award-winning architect and researcher who is currently a professor of architecture at MIT.

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    Luoyang Museum

    Luoyang Museum

    Design: 2022-2023

    The design concept of the Han and Wei Luoyang City Site Museum is to place architecture between the sky and the earth, and to be built upon the past. It is based on and inspired by the urban layout, architecture aesthetics, Chinese character aesthetics, statue aesthetics and landscape aesthetics of the Han and Wei dynasties of Luoyang. By regrouping and reinterpreting these elements, we formed a new architectural and landscape space with contemporary characteristics.

    Adhering to Han and Wei ancestors’ artistic spirit of shifting from formal resemblance to spiritual resemblance, the building pursues air, rhythm, form and spirit, blending architecture and landscape, straight lines and curves, solid and virtual bodies.

    The appearance of the building is solemn and elegant, and the layout of space is open and smooth. It is an international heritage museum for the world to understand the Han and Wei dynasties and to feel the genes of Chinese culture.

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    Earth Park

    Earth Park

    Design: 2022

    Located in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern Sichuan province. The Hua Hai Gao Earth Park Natural Art Gallery appears nestled in a tributary valley of the Anning River surrounded by the natural bounty of the Hengduan mountain region. Taking into careful consideration the sectional topography of the site to the building height and form, the building appears timelessly within the river valley, as if formed by the pre-Anthropocene geological evolution of the glacial river. Inspired by the eroded natural stone shapes of river boulders, the Natural Art Gallery is formed by three discrete concrete shell volumes floating above a recontoured river bed housing exhibition areas, combining art and nature showcasing the natural beauty of the river and the future Hai­huagou Earth Park Development surroundings.

    One approaches the Natural Art Gallery from the south via a pedestrian foot bridge to the roof of the reception/exhibition hall, physically and mentally separating the visitor from the bustle of the access road connecting the planned visitor and VIP parking at the mouth of the river delta. While crossing the bridge on a journey to the Natural Art Gallery, one enjoys a view upstream of the river where water is diverted via a hidden ballast valve allowing the stream to gently flow from each successive concrete roof vessel to the other in a series of controlled falls which are then diverted down as curtains of water around programmed areas to be experienced.

    Within the Natural Art Gallery, large sliding arced operable glass enclosures allow for views in a 180 degree panorama up and down the river valley while blurring the boundary between interior and exterior with the sound, smell and taste of the moving water and pure mountain air. Pools of varying sectional river depths allow for seasonal changes to the river boundary and activates ever changing experiences throughout the year bringing the visitor closer to the wonders of nature on each successive visit.

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    No. 1 Bond

    No. 1 Bond

    Design: 2020-2022

    Bund is the very origin of Shanghai modern history. The sound of the bell tower of the Customs House, the traveling ships of the HuangPu River and the great western style bund buildings are the memories of the Bund. Shanghai Bund Art Bookstore, located at the No. 1 Bund, will begin to tell us the story of art and culture.

    This design option is to bring modernity to tradition, to introduce openness to exclusivity, and to insert lightness to solidity. With fluid spatial planning and minimum material to create a modern art space, and to display art books and artworks artistically.

    The design encompasses a wooden book gallery core that weaves through all three zones of the bookstore. In parallel, a great table anchors an informal reading zone framed by a bookcase partition displaying art, books and goods for sale. The partitions act as delineators for various themed/zones throughout the bookstore; from Photography, Art, Architecture, Design, Food, Travel, Leisure, etc. At the end of the book gallery core is a tiered informal reading area where visitors can read, enjoy refreshments and experience informal lectures, exhibitions and performance art.

    With the second story windows blocked for gallery walls, large format High Definition 8K video screens projecting outward have been introduced to activate the façade. The lower windows create an upper valance to allow for the extension of the video display from above while allowing for views into the bookstore zones and the book gallery. This allows for the first two floors to be fully activated with interchangeable themes. The graphics would be tasteful, imagery from simple default color to unhurried animations of the art exhibition inside to images of beautiful book pages gently turning which would be on sale inside.

    The corner window is of a similar concept. However, the high definition screen would contain a full, single page e-book reader of a
    beautiful book on sale in the store. The pages would be controlled by the page turning motion of the person on the exterior of the
    façade looking inward through the window. By a wave of the arm, the onlooker can flip the pages at any speed as the e-book video would
    contain the motion of an actual page being flipped.

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    Guanghui Museum

    Guanghui Museum

    Design: 2016-2018
    Construction: 2022

    Anchoring the ring of new civic buildings bordering between the newly-planned Central Park and developing Central Business District, the Chengdu Ink Painting Museum appears like a painting hovering above the undulating mounds of the Central Park. The museum contains an invaluable collection amassed by the founder of the Fortune 500 company of 20th-century Chinese ink wash painting masterpieces, a revered art form practiced by scholar gentlemen and literati and is elevated above a valley landscape reminiscent of the favored subject for many artists.

    Looking closer, the valley which cuts across the axis of the residential and commercial headquarters of the Guanghui development is programmed with retail and public amenities, which become the base support of the two-story museum gallery wing that hovers above. The layered walls and partitions of the galleries and open circulation spaces are hidden behind multiple layers on the facade facing the Central Park, the bronze pattern reminiscent of the great ancient bronze civilizations of Chengdu. Within the natural landscape, the galleries face the Central Park reminiscent of Chengdu’s past while the East facade projects toward the glass and steel towers of the Central Business District, the new future of Chengdu.

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    Xiuwu Expo

    Xiuwu Expo

    Design: 2021

    Xiuwu in northern Henan province is an ancient county famous for natural scenic tourism but a new economy has started blossoming promoting aesthetic architecture, crafted urban products and development.  Anchoring the new district developing around the recently completed Xiuwu West high speed rail station in Xiuwu County, Henan Province is the new 33,960m2 China Hanfu Cultural Center.  Home of the “Never Ending Hanfu Festival,” the new center is influenced by traditional Han costumes based on lightness and simplicity, emphasizing the harmony between man and nature.  Yet, in line with the ethos of the growing modern Hanfu culture, the center is a new interpretation of the essence of traditional culture in a contemporary context combining art, design and fashion and the aesthetic taste of the younger generation.

    Located southeast of the high-speed rail station on the south side of Fensghou Road, and north of the highway, the Cultural Center is strategically located to anchor the development of a series of planned amenities promoting Hanfu culture becoming a new “capital of Hanfu” that will attract people from cities far and wide across China.   Billowing in the gentle Xiuwu breeze, the Hanfu Cultural Center, clad in custom colored HDPE mesh, welcomes and entrances visitors while environmentally reducing solar heat gain on the three main volumes of the Cultural Center it wraps. 

    The largest volume contains main exhibition halls on three floors each with 2,800m2 with 12m column spans.  The other two volumes contain exhibition halls on the first floor, multifunction halls on the second floor and a lecture hall and banquet hall on the 3rd floor with larger uninterrupted spans.   All major functions provide flexible floor space to provide over 15,000m2 of exhibition space.

    In the center of the three main volumes is a central glass encased atrium with colorful loggias reminiscent of the famous cave dwellings nearby north of Xiuwu.  A series of dynamically arranged vertical ramps and stairs with glass guardrails provide strategic connections between program volumes while acting as a catwalk for costume clad visitors to see and be seen as if in an impromptu fashion show. 

    Around the perimeter of the 1st floor are strategically placed cafes, retail shops and a VIP reception/lounge while the basement houses the back of house amenities, workshops, a loading dock with parking for staff and VIP, and lockers and changing rooms for visitors.

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    Stone Carving Museum

    Stone Carving Museum

    Design: 2021-Ongoing

    Rising out of Dongbao Mountain on a promontory overlooking Li Shui City at the bend of the Ou river, the Qingtian Stone Carving Art Center is the anchor of the Dongbao Mountain Overseas Chinese Cultural and Museum Ecological City in Qingtian County, Zhejiang province.

    Influenced by the long history of stone craft art that Qingtian became famous for, the museum showcasing exemplary examples of stone carving, rises out of the earth as if carved out of the unique topography of the site. In lieu of buildings built on an artificial platform, the museum straddles the heaven and earth housing extensive permanent galleries, two temporary galleries, education and multifunctional venues as well as artist residences and a high end restaurant and museum café seamlessly integrating with the natural surroundings and landscape with extensive views across Li Shu City.

    With it’s beautiful modeling in harmony with the surrounding and refined craftmanship in construction, and state of the art display, the Qingtian Stone Carving Art Center will be the premiere center of the thousand year old art form known as “Embroidery on Stone,” recognized as one of China’s national intangible cultural heritage.

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    Diageo Jade Complex

    Diageo Jade Complex

    Design: 2021-2023
    Construction: 2022-Ongoing

    The Diageo Jade complex is inspired by the tradition of whisky making, and its deep connection to place. Located in a fertile valley in Dali, and fed by pristine natural springs, the Jade whisky made here is born from a rich and beautiful environment. The architecture of the complex takes its cue from this relationship, drawing inspiration from the heritage of Dali and Scottish whisky making traditions, and taking advantage of the biodiverse landscape and spectacular views the site affords.

    The architectural concept of the project highlights the experience of nature, by stimulating the senses. We have chosen materials and carved space in order to frame views, control light and amplify sound. The sky, water and air are integral components of the design, along with the earth, stone and planting. Taste, touch, sound and smell are all activated and stimulated through this crafted Jade experience. The Jade complex design is abstracted from the building traditions of Bai/Dali vernacular architecture, and historic Scottish whisky distilleries. These inspirations have a common material palette of rough stone, dark pitched roofs, and whitewashed walls. These materials are formed into a series of courtyard-like spaces, a typology typical in the region, to utilize sustainable practices of cross-ventilation and thermal mass. The long, linear site presents the opportunity to experience a dynamic, sloped landscape, approximately 12m from West to East.

    The stone buildings of the Visitor’s Center are low and embedded in the ground along the north approach road, and then once inside dramatically open up to reveal expansive views of the Cangshan Mountains to the south. The building layout is terraced to take advantage of the naturally sloping site and create a dynamic visitor experience to be discovered. 

    A series of pools and water features are integrated with the Visitor’s Center to emphasize Jade’s deep connection to water. These pools are filled with purified water from the processing of the pristine single malt whisky. This water, along with collected rainwater, is also used to irrigate the lush landscape at the east end of the site, supporting the biodiversity of Yunnan where the original pristine spring water is cycled back into the ecosystem.

    The tapered form of the barrel tower is an abstraction, of the famous Three Pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple in Dali. It is jewel-like shape (tapered at the top and bottom) minimizes shade of the peripheral platform below while giving the form a perspectival lift and a taller appearance than the actual height. The barrel tower is clad in tessellated pattern of white hexagonal metal panels, reminiscent of the faceted tiles found in the vernacular “Bai Architecture” of the region.

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    The National Museum of Korean Literature

    The National Museum of Korean Literature

    Design: 2021

    • The National Museum of Korean Literature – Competition Honorable Mention

    Nestled in the hillside of Bukhan mountain, the National Museum of Korean Literature sits timelessly in the landscape overlooking the Eunpeyong New Town, anchoring the cultural cluster of important museums and art institutions that are emerging in the northwest of central Seoul.

    Open and democratic, celebrating the cultural heritage of Korean literature, the NMKL is not only a state-of-the-art institution for archiving and preserving literature in written form, but a dynamic village for art and culture, promoting exchange, collaboration, and the passing of knowledge. In lieu of the collection storage being hidden and “out-of-view” to the public, two “cultural storehouse towers” were envisioned to contain the varied functional programming of the new NMKL. Clad in paper like ceramically fritted-glass sails, the entire complex arrangement evokes the soft curvature of the roofs and eaves of a traditional Korean village.

    With advances in the production of sustainable forestry, the NMKL takes advantage of the increasingly accessible high-strength glulam/CLT technology. The leaning “book assembly” of each structural sail was conceptualized to act like a series of lightweight Vierendeel trusses, gently hovering on strategic points of the tiered landscape, creating an open and porous base. The curving structure creates a pinwheel of interlocked canted trays to provide area for programming within each floor, yet carefully blocking any direct sunlight. UV filtered fritted IG-units and integrated 50%/100% knockdown shading provides additional conservation protection blocking direct sunlight. Structurally engineered to withstand seismic and lateral loads, a tower floor-to-floor height of 7.8m with mezzanines, offer privacy and access to the multi-stage bookshelf system.

    Taking advantage of the 9m sloping site, multiple public entrances, and circulation points around the entire complex provide logistics for culturally dynamic programming throughout the day and evening. The larger tower volume with the museum gallery and specialized library, consists of a series of tiered platforms and trays overlooking a large public atrium. The open “amphitheater,” provides a flexible venue for exhibitions and public performances such as “hyangga,” mask plays, puppet shows, “p’ansori,” and other forms of traditional/contemporary oral literature. The smaller tower volume with a special reading room and preservation studios at the lower entrance/mezzanine level, offers protected access to rare collections of “idu” early transcription systems, early Korean literature in Chinese, and important works in Hangul. To the south, 1,500m2 of landscaped grounds is strategically preserved for future expansion with direct access to the rare books collection and preservation Studios. Connecting the two “cultural storehouse towers” is a centrally located restaurant with an outdoor terrace/performance venue facing Gijachon Park, hovering above the multipurpose hall and Education Wing offering programming and venue for institutions, schools, clubs and the neighboring art village and residents.

    The NMKL is not only a state-of-the-art facility with both physical and virtual support programming and capabilities, but a constantly evolving institution celebrating the sharing and passing of knowledge to future generations. The NMKL will not only become a cultural anchor for all of Korea but a dynamic global cultural beacon at the forefront of the 21st century and beyond.

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    JX Canal Museum

    JX Canal Museum

    Design: 2020

    The Grand Canal, the longest canal in the world starting from the old capital of Beijing to the Summer Capital of Hangzhou, runs 1,776km and links the Yellow and Yangtze River inspiring many who navigated and witnessed the enormous engineering feat throughout history. 

    The Grand Canal has advanced and prolonged the indigenous and economic growth of China’s urban centers from the Sui period to the present, the oldest parts of the canal dating back to the 5th Century BCE.  Our museum takes inspiration of the traditional ships and arched bridges that ferried and spanned the Grand Canal and the local culture that flourished along the Jiangnan section, south of the Yangtze river, still used to ferry goods and materials along this busy route.

    A series of large, enormous, sustainably forested glulam arched beams are placed floating on the site on an North/South axis, pinned together reminiscent of ship hulls busily passing each other, where the varying and staggered infill gallery slabs, and roof truss framing act as tension resisting ties for structural integrity.  The museum’s main circulation and entrances run horizontally on this North/South axis where one can visit the museum from the canal and boat dock on the South and from the “Museum Canal” or public basement hall accessed through a large chamfered and sloping entrance ramp at the North Entrance.  The large expansive “Museum Canal” contains temporary galleries, shops and children’s workshops and becomes the circulation spine to allow for navigation into the individual floating halls that house an auditorium and varying thematic galleries from strategically placed vertical circulation cores. 

    Once above ground, views of the passing ships on the canal can be seen from the floating galleries above the large reflecting pool on the plaza.  A single pedestrian bridge spans over the pool and the heavily trafficked Binhe road adjacent our site, giving panoramic views of the canal and the famous Changhong bridge while spiraling down to connect to a series of tree lined pedestrian paths and bridges connecting the famous bridge to the new museum. 

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    Fangsuo Commune

    Fangsuo Commune

    Design: 2018-2020

    Shanghai Fangsuo Culture Center Public Culture Project is located at 1790 Bin Jiang Blvd, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, a traditional industrial shipyard which has been planned by the district government to be transformed to a new cultural and retail destination. Flanked by an OMA exhibition pavilion and a shipyard factory which was adaptively reused into a new conference center by Kengo Kuma, the new Shanghai Fangsuo Cultural Center will be a new cultural bookstore containing, themed zones of books and activity. Proprietary Fangsuo goods and activities of books, stationary, fashion, cafe, kitchen studios, gallery and theater, have been designed adjacent themed marketing tie-ups and retail collaborations throughout the 17,000m2 complex.

    The design of the project was inspired by the historical memory of the industrial shipyard and the adjacent Haungpu river, the commerical lifeline to the development of Shanghai. OLI’s design was conceived as two ship hulls creating a spine of bookshelves with themed zones in the never used partially submerged core and shell building. The axial spine with a series of intermittent skylights and three main courtyards connected to flood locks abutting the river, connects the various programmed spaces on either side, allowing the visitors to wander through strategically placed openings and mezzanine bridges. The materials are mainly architectural color concrete, textured blackened steel and terrazzo with specially designed metal bookshelves inspired by ship elements. The East and West entrance canopies and the unique stair elements of the courtyards allowing multiple access points into the retail complex are also incorporated into the ship inspired design.

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    Wood Block Museum

    Wood Block Museum

    Design: 2018-2019

    The Taowahu Wood Block Museum serves as the exhibition space for a vast, preexisting collection of ancient wood block prints. Originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper, the art is a slow and steady process of layering, resulting in a composition of depth.

    The spaces of the museum fall in a similarly layered sequence, with the visitor following along through the various galleries and functions in separate volumetric entities. The circulation throughout the architecture, with direct interaction with the surrounding Suzhou Gardens, establishes a narrative of wood block printing techniques, from process to end product.

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    Yao Poly

    Yao Poly

    Y PROJECT

    Designed for an avid collector of rare Tibetan Buddhist art, the office and gallery space are housed in SOM’s recently completed Poly International Center in Shanghai’s Pudong District. On the 8th level of the tower, the full-floor office has access to panoramic views of the Huangpu River and the ever-growing Shanghai skyline.

    The design, contemporary yet casual, adapts to the duality of the needs of a burgeoning financial services company and the serene and tranquil gallery spaces of client’s growing art collection. Illuminated and scaled with intent, the custom-designed showcases are spatial yet minimal in their articulation, bringing to the foreground the exquisite artifacts of gilded bronze, copper, and gold.

    Y Residence

    Y Villa

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    Cosmopolis #1.5

    Cosmopolis #1.5

    Design: 2018
    Construction: 2018

    Cosmopolis is a biennial platform launched by the Center Pompidou, devoted to artistic practices rooted in forms of cultural translation alongside ideas of cosmopolitanism. “Enlarged Intelligence” is the second major exhibition of the platform. Housed in a former electronics warehouse in the “Eastern Suburb Memory” of Chengdu, the exhibition explores how we draw on intelligent technologies to induce cultural transformation. OLI conceptualized the exhibition design as a notion of endless open space, in which lies a constellation of works by 60 living artists from more than 20 countries. Interactive environments and installations commissioned by the Center Pompidou alongside research-based artworks take many forms within this industrial infrastructure, allowing the vistor unique paths to create boundless exchanges of experiences provoking viewers to see the cosmopolitan social values of in a new light.

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    Censer Museum

    Censer Museum

    Design: 2016-2017

    Located in a city known for its gardens, the Suzhou Censer Museum celebrates the grandfather of the client, a renowned maker and merchant of incense burners, objects historically and highly coveted by collectors, and the subsequent generations of successful master craftsmen and merchants in the family.

    The discrete volumes of the museum are scattered through a landscape of gardens indigenous to Suzhou, with the programs allotted along the circulation.

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    Museum of Islamic Art Terrace

    Design: 2015-2016
    Construction: 2016

    At the top floor of I. M. Pei’s Museum of Islamic Art is Idam, Alain Ducasse’s first restaurant in the Middle East offering an Arabic inspired French haute cuisine. Simple yet understated, the design provides access from the signature national institution to a newly designed terrace space with seating and service counters.

    Oversized stainless-steel peak doors, low iron glass and “Hautville” French limestone preserves the geometry and material palate of the original museum design while offering a new experience, with spectacular panoramic views of the ever-growing Doha skyline.

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    North Zone Silk Factory

    Design: 2016
    Construction: 2016

    The town of Wuzhen is famous for its traditional architectural heritage. However, before the advent of tourism, it was a quaint country town with some light industry, most notably a silk factory bordering the canal. Chen Xianghong, the developer of Wuzhen, fought the urban planning laws that mandated the removal of the buildings, and secured the preservation of the factory as well as the underappreciated memory of its recent past.

    Built before the modernization of China, the factory used construction techniques that saved on materials: elaborate concrete trusses carrying a traditional wooden roof frame.

    Each hall was built successively with its own structural system. The economical process also dictated the use of natural lighting, with incremental differences in each building. The ancillary new buildings by DCA extend this vocabulary in a contemporary fashion.

    The existing structures, adapted as galleries, were cleared of all additions, and preserved in their raw state. The existing doors, windows and skylights create cross views to the interior street, as well as a unique quality of light. Our goal was to use these existing features to create an open and interesting relationship with the outside. The spatial character of each hall emerges both from the relationship with the outside and from the craft of its construction.

    The resulting layer of context creates a network of possible installation strategies, in opposition to the neutral white box of current Chinese exhibition centres. Thus, the original human qualities of the workspace were recovered and preserved with their transformation into a new home for the biennial Wuzhen Art Festival of contemporary art.

    The lighting design was developed to enhance this placemaking strategy. The exterior lighting underlines building faces, and traces the connecting lines between the halls. The interior lighting is based on a system of suspended channels that weaves through the roof trusses, providing the necessary flexible display lighting that does not impose itself on the architectural qualities of the places.

    Ai Wei Wei, Maya Lin, Studio Job, Florentin Hoffman and Richard Deacon were among the thirty various international artist that displayed in the inaugural Art Festival.

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    Kindle Analects

    Kindle Analects

    Design: 2016
    Construction: 2016

    Books have traditionally been a repository of knowledge for everyone, yet the act of reading is a very personal, intimate experience. The relation with books started not too long ago. Before their invention and popularization, the Chinese civilization used ink rubbings to faithfully reproduce original works of art and calligraphy. The engraved, polished stone surfaces of the rubbings were the predecessors of the book pages; the most important of which were erected as steles. Without rival, the largest collection of important steles is found in the Confucius Temple in Xian. It is one of the first true “libraries.” The first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty in Xian, Qin Shi Huang, unified China and its written characters. It is also rumored that he burned books and buried scholars for political reasons – notably those of Confucius – causing the loss of many philosophical treatises of the Hundred Schools of Thought.

    The inspiration for the installation, sponsored by Amazon, came originally from the large Tang dynasty (618-907 in Xian) furniture platforms where cuisine, entertainment, and the arts were elevated. We imagined a new type of platform made from a bed of books, undulating to allow for various areas of seating and lounging with today’s modern book, the Kindle. As each of the over 3,500 books that make up the bed would act as a pixel, we envisioned a mirrored image of the traditional bamboo book with the Analects of Confucius made up of the arrangement of the pixels like “e-ink.” As one comfortably lounges, a mirror suspended above the bed would make the pixelated text legible, bringing the past, present, and future together and allowing for the suspension of time in one place.

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    Museum of Islamic Art Park

    Museum of Islamic Art Park

    Design: 2009-2010
    Construction: 2010-2012
    Design Consultant/Project Designer: Hiroshi Okamoto
    Lead Consultant: Pei Partnership Architects

    The Museum of Islamic Art Park is a redevelopment project of the 24-hectare man-made, landfill surrounding I. M. Pei’s Museum of Islamic Art (2008 – Hiroshi Okamoto, Designer, Site representative, Construction Administration) in Doha, Qatar.

    Anchored by a specially commissioned, site specific 79ft sculpture by Richard Serra, the park’s 5-hectare peninsula is programmed with restaurants, kiosks and leisure amenities terminating the redevelopment of the Doha corniche, and the prominent urban sea lined green belt into a cultural public park, accessible and open 24 hours to all visitors and families in the capital city of Doha.

    The black granite pier designed for the Serra sculpture, a monolithic chamfered parallelogram, terminates a palm lined allee cove, creating a majestic backdrop to the Museum of Islamic Art providing panoramic views of the entire Doha Bay and rapidly transforming skyline. The pier cantilevers 249ft on its side, over the water, creating an innate tension between the verticality of the sculpture and the horizontality of the pier. Inaugurated in December 2011, the sculpture commemoration celebrated Doha as the 2011 Cultural Capital of the Middle East.

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    Miho Institute of Aesthetics Chapel

    Miho Institute of Aesthetics Chapel

    Design: 2008-2010
    Construction: 2010-2012
    Architect: I. M. Pei
    Project Architect: Hiroshi Okamoto
    Associate Architects: I. O. Architects
    Local Executing Architects: Masatoyo Ogasawara Architects

    Situated in the mountains of Shigaraki, Japan, the Chapel of the Miho Institute of Aesthetics, I.M. Pei’s last significant work, serves as the physical and spiritual center of the 7-12th grade private institution with a holistic approach to natural agriculture and aesthetics.

    The 240-seat chapel form results from folding a two-dimensional fan-shaped surface into a conical volume, defined geometrically by a lemniscate curve, or a torus sectioned tangent to its inner circle. The lofted surface between the top and bottom curves is fabricated with 51 custom-warped stainless steels panels on the exterior and over 8,454 individually curved Japanese red cedar wood planks on the interior cladding a structural concrete shell. The joints of the wood planks vary in size to control absorption of various sound wavelengths to create an optimal neutral space for congregation and contemplation.

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    CSAC Museum

    CSAC Museum

    Design: 2011-2014
    Construction: 2014-2016
    Area: 7,079 m2

    The museum is a simple geometric volume composed of angled planes, with thin vertical ceramic frits of varying densities that provide both pattern and shading. A floating glass enclosure of horizontally fritted glass defines the second-floor volume, where both the exhibition space and service core are housed.

    Upon entering the building, the visitor experiences the in-between spaces created by the primary and secondary envelopes of fritted glass, engaging panoramic views of different densities, reminiscent of the stories and compositions woven from the colorful threads of silk embroidery.

    The open plan within the exhibition space allows for functional flexibility while retaining a strong circuit of continuously unfolding experiences. The program is defined by light, ephemeral partitions, deriving their colorful translucency from those of embroidered screens. The materiality and form of the translucent surfaces creates a “living 2D embroidery” from the observer’s perspective.

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    China Silk Embroidery Art Museum

    China Silk Embroidery Art Museum

    Design: 2010-2014

    The China Silk Embroidery Art Museum is located on the west side of Suzhou, China, housing a UNESCO World Heritage Garden and Wang Ao Temple. With the exception of a few large-scale public buildings, the context is residential and richly historic with the history of Suzhou’s embroidery art. The design for the museum distinguishes architectural volumes by different programmatic functions, allocating exhibition space to the Southeast while locating reception functions to the West. Entering through a gate, visitors pass through a glass reception pavilion before circulating through the galleries of artifacts and masterpieces, following the sequential steps of embroidery production: from embroidery design to silk dying, weaving, and mounting for display.

    The museum integrates the UNESCO Garden through an array of small-scale volumes within the landscape, expanding further into small courtyards. The space fluctuates through harmonic oppositions, from open to enclosed spaces both narrow and wide. While the embroidery galleries and studios require indirect lighting, the public spaces adjacent to the courtyard access its abundant daylight.

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    CSAC Park

    CSAC Park

    Design: 2011-2014

    Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan Province or “Heavenly State” (Tian Fu Zhi Guo), is located west of the Sichuan Basin and in the center of the Chengdu Plain. The site is located at the intersection of Tian Fu Square and Tian Fu Avenue in Shuangliu, Chengdu, around 20km from the city center.

    The Chengdu Silk Art Culture (CSAC) Park establishes a new typology that reaches back to the tradition and origins of Chengdu as a settlement and a city. Within the irregular linear boundaries of the site, the park flows from East to West along the subtle changes of the existing topography, binding seamlessly the varying scales of buildings in varying sectional relationships. The office and commercial plaza on the South Hongxing Avenue to the East gradually transforms into a quiet residential development to the West. A green area North of the residential sector creates a landscape that flows into the surrounding fertile hills of an urban esplanade and to a park plaza on the Southeastern end of the site. In the opposing direction, commercial retail space circulates inhabitants and visitors from the taller, larger complexes in the Northwest to the small-scale retail and office typologies in the Southeast.

    Responding to the neighboring residential high-rises about the site, an urban plaza along the park serves as a buffer for optimal sun exposure and circulation throughout the year. A tree-lined pedestrian street in the scale of the old courtyards of Chengdu lines the southern edge of the site, upon which is the Chengdu Silk Art Cultural Museum, at the confluence of all programmatic and topographic currents.

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    Haidao Silk Art Culture Park

    Haidao Silk Art Culture Park

    Design: 2013-2014

    Located in Haina, China, about 15km from downtown Haikou, the project responds to the Qiongzhou Straight in which it is situated, the surrounding Wuyuan River Forest Park and the bisecting Central Park. From the onset, volumetric studies of the Haido Silk Art Cultural Park proved invaluable for creating a singular identity from the multiplicity of programmatic elements. 

    The office towers, hotels and boutique formally resulted from the stacking of individual slabs in relativity to each other and to site zoning, views, and solar orientation. The slabs were expressed on the facade as bands, reminiscent of threads of silk, disclosing the process in the design. In the gradual shortening and lengthening of the white aluminum bands, deep eaves are created, shading against sun exposure and promoting passive cooling. From the Silk Museum to the Special Silk Retail the thread is “woven” between the individual programs, pushing and pulling, shaping terraced landscapes and enveloping a central green courtyard within.

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    Haidao Silk Art Culture Museum

    Haidao Silk Art Culture Museum

    Design: 2013-2014

    Haidao Silk Art Cultural Museum takes center stage as a cultural beacon in the Haidao Silk Cultural Art Park, situated in the new Central Business District of Hainan, China. The facade is composed of draped “silk,” aligning the main traffic artery and the Centeral Park of master plan. Expressed through the varying textures of colored concrete, polished stone and glass, the facade accentuates the “drape” and curvature along the viewer’s changing vantage and the movement of the sun.

    The interwoven interior spaces establish a typology of a vertical “living museum,” where various cultural events and silk exhibitions take place alongside other endeavors of entertainment, education, shopping and leisure. The amalgamation of activities within the parameters of museography establish an architecture integral to China’s modern, international lifestyle.

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    Museum of Islamic Art

    Museum of Islamic Art

    Design: 2001-2005
    Construction: 2004-2008
    Area: 36,000 m2
    Architect: I. M. Pei
    Site Representative: Hiroshi Okamoto

    The 36,000 m2 Museum of Islamic Art is located south of Doha’s Corniche on a newly created island 60 meters from the shore. Protected by a C-shaped peninsula, the limestone and granite building is physically isolated yet visible from all around the capital city, emerging timelessly from the Persian Gulf.

    A search for the essence of Islamic architecture within its wide-ranging cultural and regional diversity revealed the paramount importance of the desert sun and the simple geometric forms it so powerfully brings to life. The exterior of the museum is thus sculpturally modulated by the sun’s play of radiant surfaces against deep shadows, visually faceting away the building’s large mass.

    Inside, exhibition galleries grow incrementally higher and smaller around a central atrium in which a Grand Stair doubles back under a crown of light. The space climaxes in a progressive matrix from circle to octagon to square, before transforming finally into four triangular corners that incline back at different angles to become the atrium’s supporting columns.

    Supplementing the galleries and gardens are a bookstore, dining, an auditorium, prayer hall, and separate but integral Education Center that is joined by a serene arcaded garden. The Museum is at once a vital center for art, learning, social gathering and enrichment in a country on the frontier of global economy and culture.

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    Suzhou Museum

    Design: 2002-2004
    Construction: 2003-2006
    Architect: I. M. Pei
    Site Architect: Bing Lin

    The Suzhou Museum design finds inspirations from the classical buildings of Suzhou with white stucco walls and grey tiled roofs, and from the classical gardens of Suzhou for which the city became famous. While respecting the historical context of the past, the design illustrates a new interpretation of the classical architecture, meeting the challenging design requirements of being not only “Chinese and Suzhou, but also contemporary and forward-reaching.” Immediately upon completion, the building has been recognized as an important and successful precedence in the delicate balance of modern building design in the historical Chinese context.

    The new Suzhou Museum employs a simple building palette with white walls and stone tiled roofs. The black granite roof tiles are uniform and solid, and in harmony with the traditional tile roofs of Suzhou. The galleries are interconnected with a series of courtyards. The main garden of the museum is separated from the adjacent Unesco designated Humble Administrator’s Garden by a shared wall. The design of the main garden is simple and elegant, with a flowing pond, gazebo and a sliced stonescape as the centerpiece. The sliced rocks from Shandong province carefully arranged against the white courtyard wall form a three-dimensional Chinese landscape painting.

    Suzhou has a splendid cultural tradition with art crafts and paintings of Ming and Qing Dynasties. The exhibition spaces and design are carefully scaled to be appropriate for its displayed contents. The museum also has a contemporary gallery, a temporary gallery, multi-function room, VIP reception room, and a café. It is a modern museum with state-of-the-art facilities. Since its opening, the new Suzhou Museum has become a new landmark of Suzhou City, designated as a top-ranking Class A museum of China and has becoming a window and platform for cultural exchange and development with the rest of the world.

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