Bamboo Bamboo Canopy and Pavilions
200best ES
LLLab.
2021
Type
Cultural
Tags
public spaces, creative spaces, art spaces , 200Best
Visitability
Allowed
Description
The Impression SanjieLiu, Yangshuo, Guilin is located in one of the most dramatic landscapes in China. Endless greenery surrounds the site filling space between large karst towers of rock. With a landscape so grand any moves to dismiss it, let alone compete would make little sense. With this understanding it was decided that the natural elements themselves would form the premise for what architecture would inhabit the site, one element in particular, bamboo. The Impression SanjieLiu is already well established, now in its 15th year of operation. The project presented a situation where most existing structures would remain untouched. Instead focus shifted to how introducing new intervention could support a pre-existing condition. At present, large clusters of bamboo cover most of the site, creating structures of mingling pipes and leaves. As a means to coincide with what is already there, the new architecture looked at borrowing the materiality of the bamboo, reconfiguring it to form new space. In doing so, this new space means not to contest. Instead it aims to augment, albeit very gently, the surrounding bamboo groves and hills.Currently, the night show entertains guests in two areas, one at either end of the island site. The entry and pagoda where guests arrive, and the main stage, perched at the bank of the Li river at the other end. Between these two points little interaction takes place. It is here in this middle ground that two new assemblies of architecture are introduced. The first, woven bamboo lantern structures, scattered where guests circulate, whose purpose is to guide and intrigue. Then the other, a stretch of woven canopy amongst clusters of bamboo, providing area to walk sheltered from regular rainfall. In these, the architecture relies on bamboo not only for its composition, but also its constant referral to parts that constitutes the place.When entering the site, lanterns small in stature line along the pathway cast out signals of dappled light. As visitors travel further the once small lanterns become drastically larger to a point where the guest can find themselves able to walk inside. The makeup of the lanterns remains sincere, with a structure of bamboo lengths encased in lashed bamboo either side. On closer inspection one can get a sense of the random beauty that can only be created when something is truly constructed by hand. The slightly dark appearance of bamboo framing shows markings of how it is bowed with fire to create the curved lantern silhouette. Over this, piece by piece, teams of local craftsman have threaded numerous stripes of bamboo in an unintentional pattern that requires no glues or nails to hold its shape. This method of production is a showcase of intricacy, clearly shaped by the hands of people and their intuition of beauty. In the daylight, the lanterns appear solid, the yellow of the shell in compliment with the green surrounding. Come night the personality of the lantern shifts from something more unyielding to a porous shell. The lantern itself is a diffuser of light, playing theatrics of scale and light with guests. As a whole, the lantern looks at home under the arching towers of bamboo in its peripheries. Almost by chance, when looking to the distance the lantern silhouette is echoed by the stone towers of the Yangshuo, Guilin landscape strewn along the immediate horizon. (Description provided by LLLab)