Mirrored facades have become a popular architectural styling. From Doug Atiken's recent installation work for Desert X in Palm Springs to Snøhetta's 7th Room treehouse, mirrored architecture effectively blends the building into its surroundings while reflecting the world back upon the viewer. B+P Architects, a firm based in Taiwan, are the latest studio to break out this feature with their art-annex. After all, art is said to be a mirror!

From the architects: Fickle realties are the roots of art, and the only thing never-changing when it comes to art is our constant pursuit of that intangible moment.  The way a mirror faithfully reflects is one form of an eternal fantasy land. When we climb along the trunk of reality through the mirror, virtual images extend between reality and fantasy through latching onto our feelings. A multitude of thoughts have interwoven in the pursuit process as branches and leaves, allowing a moment to instantaneously freeze according to the situation.

What has sprouted is the eternal showcase for the soul. “School” is the starting point for social lives and modern civilization.  This project aims to establish a more diversified environment for creativity, allowing the school to become the aesthetic base for neighboring communities and thus becoming the first step toward starting up Aesthetic Education of Ordinary People.  Taking the layout of school art corners into consideration, we choose to put the container at the far end of the boulevard; therefore, how not to disturb the peace and serenity has become the prime matter in choosing our design method.

“Mirror” is a tool used for observations, from on the details about ourselves to about the interrelations between feelings and environments.  Overall, covering the heavy metal box with mirror-polished stainless steel boards allows the gigantic body to be concealed inside the interpretation of the delicate reflection of its surrounding environment ( or perhaps you can also say this is a form of extension) and enables this artificial construction to escape from the fate resulting in vicious fighting for space against its environment.  At the same time, through the interesting aspects of a “mirror”, we stimulate students to rethink about the relationship between themselves and their environments and further understand that the observations and reflections on themselves, environments and all things are also a crucial step in creativity.

Compared to vivid architecture, we treat Trees in the Mirror even more as an apparatus enforcing the relationship between people and their surroundings and a medium stimulating the learning of diversified thinking.

Architects:  Infopolis Design x B+P Architects
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan
Architects in Charge: Hung-Yu Lin x Chia-Hao Tsai
Design Team: Chi Chung
Area: 33.7sqm
Project Year:  2016.8 - 2016.10
Photographs: Hung-Yu Lin, WENYA Studio