China is a country with a rich culture and offers experiences of discovering unique places…
Imperial Kiln Museum
Jingdezhen is known as the “Porcelain Capital” in the world because it has been producing pottery for 1,700 years. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jingdezhen exported a huge amount of porcelains to Europe. Jingdezhen was growing naturally fitting in the valleys surrounding rivers, hills, and mountains because of the porcelain industry. The early settlements of the city developed around kiln complexes which included kiln, workshops, and housing. The street pattern was generated by nature and the porcelain industry. Most of the small alleys in between kiln complexes have always approached the Chang river in order to transport porcelain products to the river. The main streets have always been along with Chang river to bring all businesses and commerces together.
Public
Situated on a fairly restricted historical area adjacent to the east side of the Imperial Kiln ruins, the plan of the Imperial Kiln Museum was aligned with the north-south street grid of Jingdezhen. With its entry, water pools, and bridge facing west, embracing the open file of Imperial Kiln Ruins to welcome visitors from Imperial Kiln Relic Park. Public pedestrians can wander through the forest under the green canopy, going through the bridge, flowing into the foyer of the museum.
Concept
The Imperial Kiln Museum comprises more than half a dozen brick vaults base on the traditional form of the kiln, each of the vaults is of a different size, curvature, and length. They were naturally applied to the site, carefully integrated with many existing ruins including a few ruins that were found after the construction. The unparalleled, liner, and arched structures of the museum, like old kilns, reach below the level of the street to not only give the flexibility to adapt itself into the complicated site, but also to achieve the intimate scale of interior space. This strategy – in part also as a response to the height of surrounding historical buildings – leads to productive ambiguity in relation to the building’s horizontal datum. The “insertion” of the building into the ground of the site produces a series of public spaces at street level. More importantly, it allows for the design of a number of more intimate open vaults and courtyards within the museum. Most of those public spaces are covered under shaded and are protected from the rain because it is hot and it rains a lot during summer in Jingdezhen. One of those open spaces, two open vaults sited in both ends, will also reveal the traces of the historic fabric on the site.
When one walks on the bridge, enters the foyer, and turns left, he will pass a series of arched exhibition spaces lightly varied in size and with contradicting openness (enclosed or open to the sky) to encounter a gentle stair, in the end, flowing down to the underground level with five sunken courtyards. Meanwhile, people can obtain a three-in-one (kilns-porcelains-people) museum experience when they see those porcelain, ruins, and sunken courtyards which create manifold layers’ experiences with ancient bricks on the façade.
It is designed to attract and maintain the attention of visitors
As someone turns right at the foyer, he will respectively pass the bookstore, cafe, tea room and finally reach a semi-outdoor area under the arch, witnessing a picturesque scene. When daytime surfaces, these arches reflect the waves of water while low horizontal gaps tempt people to sit down on the floor to see the long horizon of the Imperial kiln ruins. A similar surprise would be created when someone sees the Longzhu Pavilion of the Imperial kiln ruins through the vertical seams when he is on the way to the auditorium before accessing the foyer. Five sunken courtyards varied in size have a different theme: gold, wood, water, fire, soil. Those five themes not only reflect old Chinese thinking about the earth but also associate with porcelain making techniques.The overall experience of the museum tries to rediscover the roots of Jingdezhen, to recreate the past experience among kiln, porcelain, and human being.
Mountain and Sea Art Hall
China is an ancient country that attaches great importance to dredging, and its source can be traced back to the mythical story of emperor YU’s taming of the flood. In China, the modern dredging industry originated in Tianjin. The project is located in the key area of Jizhou, the northernmost, most mountainous part of Tianjin. As the core exhibition place of the real estate sales center, the designer transformed it into a different kind of art hall, using the Chinese Oriental fairy tales to deliver the spatial artistic concept. Serendipper serves as a soft decoration design for presenting the eastern temperament. In accordance with the square architectural form of an inward courtyard, the interior space is divided into the enterprise exhibition hall, negotiation area, sand table exhibition area, and children’s activity area.
Jingwei Filled the Sea
The highlight of the enterprise exhibition hall lies in the sculpture named ‘Blue Sea’ and the story behind it. The inspiration for the design is derived from a fairy tale: Jingwei Filled the Sea: A little girl died in a shipwreck on the Eastern Sea, and her spirit, transformed into a beautiful bird, cried sadly in the sound “jingwei, jingwei”. The bird hated the sea so much that Jingwei decided to fill it up. Every day, the brave little bird kept carrying twigs and pebbles from the mountain to the sea without rest. From this fable comes the idiom “The bird Jingwei trying to fill the sea”. Chinese culture uses the reference to describe people who are firm and indomitable, stopping at nothing until they reach their goal.
The Beauty of Time and Space
The experimental concept expresses the designer’s ambition: the device body is a blue sea bench, with a unified function and form for viewers to sit; Around the bench, we can see the blue and white gradient, parabolic stacked “twigs and pebbles” trying to fill the “East Sea,” represented by the marble floor. The device and the reflection complement each other and become a complete picture of “Jingwei fills the sea.” It is designed to attract and maintain the attention of visitors, who will stay and be captivated by their surroundings.
Text: V2com, DM, photo: Tian Fangfang, ©Sean, schranimage
