Masterplan  |  Architecture  |  Landscape  |  Interior  |  Graphic  |  Product
750 sqm  |  Tianjin, China  |  Built 2011

Designed as a permanent show gallery for China's largest developer Vanke, our building coalesces a series of disparate contextual perimeters to form a holistic response. The 3 main perimeters are the site, the surrounding buildings and the client's programatic brief. Firstly, the site's adjacency to the beachfront was a primary point of inspiration. We were interested to orientate our building to address this beachfront as well as to select a palette of materials that echoed the spirit of the surroundings - corten steel on the exterior and timber on the interior.

Secondly, we were asked to respect the surrounding government buildings and where possible, draw inspiration from them. A series of low lying buildings designed after the american prairie style, these buildings offered little direct inspiration. However after closer analysis, we decided to abstract their pitched roof profiles and exaggerate them beyond roof form to become full building forms. Lastly, in response to the client's program which required 3 main spaces, our building pitches upwards at these key areas and the main pitch thrusts towards the beachfront, allowing a vantage point to the ocean from within the building.