Program: 20,000 sqm Performing Arts Centre, Hotel and retail center
Location: Yonding, China
Company: Synthesis Design + Architecture
Role: Associate
Status: Under construction
Situated on a prime hilltop site overlooking the Yongding River, the design of the building seeks inspiration from the continuously looping traditional homes of the Hakka Minorities. However, it also looks to re-interpret the closed and introverted forms of the Tulou by seeking parallel inspiration from mathematical models of continuous inversion found in the mobius strip, klein bottle, and lorenz attractor.
In direct opposition to the conventional approach of the Tulou which sit as platonic and inward facing closed objects dropped onto the landscape, the project seeks to integrate itself with the contours of the surrounding landscape. Its dramatic looping roof form peels away from the terraced hilltop to create a continuous loop which is both plaza, façade, and roof. It simultaneously creates an inward facing enclosure toward its central performance stage, while maintaining an outward facing view over the surrounding hillside and the hundreds of historic Tulou which dot the local area.
