Architecture Today

Architecture Today

Architecture Today featuring great design, architecture, fashion, graphics and innovation from across the globe.

 

First Shiguangli

First Shiguangli is a marketing center in Beijing, China. The interior joins a sales office with a bookstore to form a composite space. The design turns the sales area into a book island set within a busy city. Light is guided into the rooms to shape quiet zones for reading and rest. A lighting element named Light of Life is made of metal and measures 1450 millimeters in diameter and 2700 millimeters in height. The project was completed in 2021. The intent is to slow the pace of a visit and to offer a calm cultural experience.

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Xi'an Qujiang Art Center

Xi'an Qujiang Art Center is an exhibition hall located in Qujiang New District, Xi'an, China. The building appears to float above a green slope and forms a clear visual marker beside the urban road. Double-layer full glass curtain walls blur the boundary between the interior and the surrounding parks. A suspension structure carries the three exhibition levels, and the suspended columns are reduced to 200 mm in diameter, so the space is almost free of columns. A gentle trail through the urban green belt leads visitors into the site.

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Chengdu NBD Centre

Chengdu NBD Centre is a mixed use office and cultural complex in Chengdu, China. The project includes twin office towers of 120 metres, a podium and an underground level, with a total area of 171,650 square metres. The below ground retail level connects directly to adjacent metro lines and neighbouring plots. A large sunken civic plaza draws visitors to the ground level, where multi-level links lead to retail and cultural spaces within the podium. A breathing facade supports natural ventilation, and media LED panels are integrated into the facade surface.

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Oriental Movie Metropolis Show Theater

Heart to the local nature and response to contemporary times is the initial inspiration for the aesthetic creating of architectural form. Rooted in Eastern philosophy, the self-organizing system of building elevation, which involve the natural environmental perception, custom performance function and construction material shaping potential, perfectly represent the orderly and complexity elegance.

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Huanghesong Theatre

Huanghesong Theatre is an interior design for a cultural venue covering 35000 square meters. The design draws on the vortex form of the Yellow River and on the ritual and music culture of the Central Plains. Different corridors and halls connect all functional spaces. Load-bearing columns are treated as decorative carriers, and their tailored forms recall book pages. The main materials are super white cave stone, Monaco grey stone, grindstone, GRG and bronze metal. These materials were selected for cost efficiency and low-carbon performance.

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The Peacock

The Peacock is a wine cellar of about ten square meters. The cellar is lined with one thousand blue glazed terra cotta tiles, each shaped and finished by hand. The tiles are arranged in a triple curved array inspired by the form of a peacock. Each tile holds a wine bottle and carries a small light that illuminates the tile below, so the only other light source is a single spotlight above the central table. The tiles were made by artisans in Jingdezhen, China, using a feather textured blue glaze of the Song Dynasty. Cooling is managed by a smart controller.

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