Piazza & Art Space

Gujiaying, China

Cultural Centers

Architects: Atelier TeamMinus

Location: Gujiaying, China
Year: 2019
Team: Brian Zhang Li, Xue Bai, Hao Wang, Mingqi Zhang, Yufeng Wang, Huimeng Yang, Mingyue Huang

Sitting in the center of the Gujiaying horticulture village, the building features a piazza made of traditional tiles bending upwards, revealing the subterranean art space below.

A frame at the southern end of the piazza pays tribute to a legendary stage that had existed here by the turn of the 20th century, while windowing the Yongning Pavilion and the Tiantian Hill to the north.

A suspended footbridge winds its way down beneath the raised north-west corner of the piazza, leading to the semi-open sunken courtyard, before entering the indoor exhibition space. The subterranean space features an array of special columns that have cooperated lighting in the upper part, and decorated with stainless steel on the lower part, each column is tapered towards both ends.