Seashore Chapel

Vector Architects have designed a simple, contemplative, spiritual space extending into the air above a beach on the Bohai Sea.

Approached from the shore via a long, thin, concrete path the chapel presents a narrow, elongated profile with it’s steeply pitched roof rising above a flight of stairs. A centrally positioned rectangular aperture opens directly through the entire structure extending one’s view to the horizon beyond.

Ascending the stairs to where one may enter through double wooden doors one comes beneath a porch formed by the opening of a vertical slit to separate it from the body of the chapel. This porch is adorned with a single bell on a cross beam just below its apex.

Entering one finds a wall crossing most of the width of the chamber with a single central slit offering a view to the simple iron cross at the far end. Rounding the wall one enters the church proper, a simple space of 14m x 7m ending in a rectangular picture window facing directly out to sea. Rows of plain, wooden benches on either side of fer seating for visitors while a lectern set to one side provides a position from which they might be addressed without disrupting their view.

Lighting is thoughtfully controlled, with daylight appearing through various openings glazed with stained glass creating subtle plays of colour and shadow as the sun passes overhead.

To one side a narrow passage gives entry to a smaller space, once again ending with a view towards the sea, permitting a single visitor to stand alone in contemplation.

The inner and outer walls alike are of the same rough white concrete: textured enough to feel weather-worn , refined enough to present the chapel’ s delicate form.

Viewed from the sides the bulk of the chapel stands on thin legs seemingly unsupported but for the steps at the landward end. It appears to drift somewhere just above the horizon, at once both of the sea and of the land.

Beneath the body of the chapel a space is created where beach goers can gather, rest in the shade or pause to take in the view.

Architects: Vector Architects
Location: Nandaihe, Hebei
Client: Beijing Rocfly Investment (Group) CO., LTD
Project Year: 2015
Area: 270.0 sqm
Principal Architect: Gong Dong
Design Team: Dongping Sun , Yi Chi Wang, Jiahe Zhang
link

Cloud Pavilion

The current Cloud Pavilion is a reinvention of a temporary version originally built in 2013 as part of the Shanghai West Bund Biennial for Architecture and Contemporary Art. While broadly maintaining the form, structure and concept of the original, the new pavilion is a permanent structure which succeeds both as sculptural object and practical event space.

The pavilion consists two horizontal rectangular slabs, forming the floor and ceiling, separated by a grid of thin vertical metal rods which surround an inner cloud-shaped space defined by a wall of curved glass. Within the cloud chamber a single column clad in wood contains a second interior space and access to the pavilion’s lighting controls etc. The entire ceiling within the glass wall is white and, but for a narrow strip around the edge, can be lit from behind filling the space with an even, diffuse light, and illuminating the pavilion as part of the night scenery along the river’s edge.

Occupying a former industrial site, symbolised by cranes preserved on the riverside, and now hosting a variety of activity spaces – a landscaped section of former railway line, skatepark, basketball courts, bouldering wall – the surrounding West Bund area is being thoroughly redeveloped with contributions from numerous Chinese and international architects.

Architect: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
Local architect: Tongji Architectural Design Institute
Location: Shanghai
Client: West Bund Development Corporation
Commission: 2015
Construction: May to July 2016
Area: 150 sqm
link

Onehouse Office

The Onehouse have designed a new office for themselves.

The main spaces are finished in an austere palette of black and white, with grey flooring. Planters of greenery, cacti and snake plant, provide a break in colour and form, their rounded stems and pointed leaves contrasting with the simple, rectilinear approach employed throughout.

Moving into more private offices and meeting spaces natural wood flooring and furniture, coloured chairs, and tungsten lighting soften the atmosphere.

Architects: The Onerous
Location: Shanghai
Materials: brushed black titanium sheet, Black Cedar board, self- levelling flooring, stainless steel plate
Area: 480 sqm
Project Year: 2015
Chief designer: Fan Lei
Design team: Ma Yonggang, Geng Yifan
Interior layout: Fan Lei, Li Wenting
link

LXB Noodles

This popular noodle restaurant on a pedestrianised shopping street close to the river in Changsha has been given a facade of moulded concrete and weathering steel.

The form used for the facade, a sheet of vertical split bamboo strips, is used as a front piece for the restaurant’s service counter.

Space within the restaurant is divided by gridded metal frames which rise from the floor to a high ceiling. Suspended here are steel cable ‘noodles’ hanging in deeply looping rows forming a sculptural ceiling. Bare bulbs suspended within the form defined by these ‘noodles’ provide a soft, warm light in the interior.

In good weather the front of the restaurant can be opened up softening the divide of interior and exterior as seating is moved onto the street and light and breeze are allowed to enter.

Architects: Lukstudio
Location: Changsha
Project team: Christina Luk, Alba Beroiz Blazquez, Cai Jin Hong, Pao Yee Lim
General contractor: Shanghai MaiChang Construction Project Co., Ltd.
Area: 50 sqm
Completion: 2015
link

Pantry’s Best

Lukstudio completed three stores for the cupcake brand, Pantry’s Best, in Shanghai

Client: Pantry’s Best
Scope: storefront design, custom furniture & lighting design
Area: L’Avenue 53 sqm / K11 Art Mall 14 sqm / Jing’an Joinbuy City Plaza 14 sqm

L’Avenue / K11
Design: Nov 2014 – Jan 2015
Construction: Feb – April 2015
Design team: Christina Luk, Cai Jin Hong, Pao Yee Lim, Wesley Shu, special thanks to Lexi B and Mama Irene

Jung’an Joinbuy City Plaza
Design: 16 March 2016 – 16 April 2016
Construction: 16 April 2016 – 29 April 2016
Design team: Christina Luk, Cai Jin Hong, Ma Kun
link

images and text copyright © Peter Dixie All Rights Reserved