Runke Luo - YTAA 2020 Asia Shortlist

Experiment new forms of architecture production, explore the boundary of architecture, art and literature.

Invisible Kulangsu is an experiment of architecture products. It is a proposal for the revitalization of Kulangsu, once the treasure island with profound cultural heritage. The project proposed to bring memory and story back and continue to narrate the story by series of literature, illustration and designed space.

Kulangsu Island has a Profound historical and cultural accumulation, known as piano island, ocean garden, ocean architecture Expo. Old Kulangsu were gone. New Kulangsu is facing unprecedented pressure. The rapid development of tourism in the recent decade wipes away its characteristics. Fast tourism spots like souvenir shop, snack bars gradually occupied every corner of the island. The island’s scenery, coastlines, and hybrid styles of architecture are left behind. Now the island is a giant eaten center with streets tiled like a maze. How to blast cultural memory from history and how to formulate sustainable tourism is a question we should think about.

The project has two parts. The first part is research on relationship among literature, illustration and space based on Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities; I illustrated 16 invisible cities. The second part is to explore the boundary between text, image and space. I reconstructed Kulangsu Island through literary descriptions and gradually developed a series of images. Just like most architects work on the vertical section, this kind of narrative words and images could be fundamental tools for advancing creativity. For me, producing architecture is a process together with constructing narratives and producing images. — I. Piano Island — Kulangsu Piano School Kulangsu is the first place in China to have pianos and establish a connection with Western music. This section is located in the former Kulangsu Piano Museum. It is a piano tower, a piano school." — I I. Hanging Street — Kulangsu Ocean Research Center Kulangsu was once the icon of productive land. This section is a renovation of an abandoned fish farm. The place would accommodate a restaurant, an ocean product workshop and a greenhouse. — I I I. Treasure Palace — Kulangsu Architecture Park Kulangsu has preserved samples of various architectural styles, both domestic and international, thus earning the flattering reputation of “Wanguo Architecture Expo”. This section, I extract three elements of exotic architecture on the island: roof, stairs and walls. By reassembling the three elements, I create playgrounds for children in several pockets of the island. — IV. Fortress Corridor — Kulangsu Ocean Club Surrounded by ocean, Kulangsu islander has an indivisible relationship with the ocean. This section traces back people’s close relationship with the ocean. The corridor, the bridge is a harbor, an ocean club.