Text description provided by the architects. The You Art Center is located in Changde, the origin city of famous Chinese fable Land of Peach Blossoms. The building footprint is around 1600sm. The project vision is to use urban art as medium and catalyst for city upgrade and redevelopment, promote aesthetic education for better public spaces, urban art and life style. Hence, It helps rebrand the old city identity for greater exposure and understanding through this new art portal.

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site

We envision an art space with more publicness, flexibility and public engagement. Unlike many other enclosed white boxes in traditional art exhibition center, the future of the art center is not just a stage for the art pieces but more about promoting interaction between public and artists. Hence we design a vertical public atrium as an informal public space for exhibition, events, and circulation. It reflect the traditional social characters of the lanes and streetscape in a vertical manner to interface art with the public.

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The architectural design concept of Changde YOUAN Art Centre takes “The Light of Changde” as the main theme, using architectural space as the medium, we aspire to create a stage/platform for the cultivation of art and spiritual lifestyle.

Analytical diagrams

Contemporary art is unique in its diverse way of expressions and formats, to tailor for this uniqueness, our building end up in a series of stacking boxes of various size, height and proportions.

Ascend Art Gallery. Image

Ascend art gallery – a vertical museum without wall and boundary
It is an informal public space for interaction, cultural and social exchange.

Ascend art gallery. Image

Peace of mind library
A library and reading lounge where salon and forum can take place.

Peace of mind library. Image

Studio Theatre – a stage without retractable seating for diverse possibility.

Meditation Sky Garden – Vertical garden city and window to witness the city transformation.

Meditation Sky Garden. Image

The You Art Center also reflects the aspiration of an Utopia where people lead an ideal existence in harmony with nature. It becomes a place or venue open for public engagement and participation.

Peace of mind library. Image

Building new city with injection of collective memory
City redevelopment and upgrade will inevitable erase the old town characters. In order to keep the old city memory and inject some historical elements to the city center. Artist are creating urban art pieces base on the reclaimed materials from the demolition of the old town such as bricks, drifted wood, street plates, etc. As architects, we also inspired by the traditional roofing shingles craftsmanship to create a new identity for The You Art Center.

Ascend art gallery. Image

The building massing honesty reflects the stacking space and functions within. Inspired by the shimmering quality of the Yuan River and indigenous roof tile craftsmanship, we use faceting aluminum cladding modules to create an animating envelope effect from various viewing angles and daylight conditions.

Peace of mind library. Image

Catering for various art programs requirement, we create a series of functional boxes organized around the vertical public atrium. The venue becomes a museum without wall and boundary for Visitors to experience the space under the brightly lit skylight atrium.

Facade Detail. Image © Ice Tan

• Architects

  Atelier Global

• Location

  Linyuan Road, Dingcheng District, Changde, Hunan, China

• Category

  Cultural Center

• Design Team

  Frankie Lui, Larry Tsoi, Vienna So, Jing Cai, Poon Siu Fung, Jeffrey He , Andy Chen.Yongxia He.Chao Cai.Jess Yang, Demi Song ,Yvon Guo.

• Area

  3800.0 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Ice Tan