Jinglan Bay Art Museum | Waterfrom Design co. Ltd

Dropped Ink

The landscape of the literati, the landscape of architecture

The focus of the landscape in paintings is expressions, but how does architecture become a narrative tool to record nature? The project is located in Liuzhou, a mountainous area with winding waters. Instead of simulating the landscape with shapes, Waterform Design, which is in charge of this design, thinks it would be better to use light and shadow to create high mountains and deep water. The material façade is used to recreate the mental transitions of entering a deep forest, and to incorporate nature into the interior gestures. 

We imagine that walking through the interior of the building is like a mountain climbing practice, passing through a tunnel covered by branches and leaves with the sky hidden behind boulders or looking up at the mountain peaks under the cliff, feeling the personal transformation of the mind and the tranquility of not clinging to material things. By focusing on the natural state of each scene and object, we release our daily emotions while climbing high and finding our true intentions. 

Letting go of figurative details, using contours to meander through the landscape

Giving up persistence, we withdraw ourselves from the environment to maintain the clarity of non-stagnation. Therefore, we do not simulate a figurative landscape, but reproduce the experience of people wandering in the mountains through the multi-directional views of people zigzagging, climbing, looking up, or looking down between structures, and even the real and imaginary contours of reflections on the floor.

Paintings to reflect the ever-changing and eternal splendor

By abstracting the relationship between the outline of the mountains and the landscape through volume, we have removed all extra colors or imitations of nature, using the intensity of ink only to express the deep or ethereal texture. The broad white space allows the outline of the wall to move with the sun and shadows, quietly shaping the undulation and connection of the mountains, while the light ink only outlines their shapes, and the mountains are haloed between the lines to create distance. The colors that stimulate the senses are filtered out, and the form simply enters a state of ethereal consciousness.

Then, there is the mirror-like ink polished ground, which is solid and serene. Outside the window, with the new green in spring, the red in autumn, the sunshine on sunny days, the rain drops on rainy days, the frosty moon, and the sunken orange in the sunset, colors not only change in time but are also reflected in the lake and stain the mountain rocks. 

Intrinsic connotation, a temporal catalyst of expression

Liuzhou is famous for its wonderful stones, which include mountain stones, water stones, earth stones, cave stones, and rocks. Each of which has its own beauty. It is as if the ramblings of heaven and earth for ten thousand years are hidden in the natural gestures of stones, which are history as well as art. It is not surprising that materialist art has always been an advocate of unprocessed natural objects and the spirit that the essence is the most beautiful, believing that even if natural objects are put into the architectural field, they can still stimulate energy and artistic effect with the space.

Taking this as our inspiration, we built the entrance with raw stones to create the depth of a valley. The deep cut stone surface of the counter is not only used as the façade of the building but also as a display of the mountain wall, transforming the natural stone gestures into an emotional turn when experiencing nature. The white woven fabric on the wall flies and condenses, like the indulgence of the wild scribble, or the fishermen casting their nets in the early morning. The silk threads are used to outline the indistinct natural textile device, manifesting an improvised, unconscious state of expression. It also resembles the moment when ink is put on paper, which is ethereal and spontaneous.

By inviting you to visit the landscape narrated by the architecture, and experience the white space and depth of the design grid, we hope that this site is like spreading a multi-view ink painting of a landscape, which synthesizes philosophy and poetry, and transcends the perception of the surface landscape to facilitate a pure feeling of the change in status and the state of mind fit.

Data

Designer: Waterfrom Design

Client: China Resources Land Limited

Location: Liuchow

Area: 1,705 m2

Layout: Reception area. Sales area. Display area. Digital media area. VIP area. Office. Toilet

Material: polished marble. chiseled marble. mineral paint. red paint. black wood. oak
Design Period: 2021.11～2022.02
Construction Period: 2022.03～2022.07

Photographer: Vincent Wu

Copyright:  Waterfrom Design