-
Architects: Kong Xiangwei Studio
- Area: 20 m²
- Year: 2023
-
Photographs:Archi Translator
-
Lead Architects: Kong Xiangwei
Text description provided by the architects. Mr. Dongpo's poem juxtaposes pine and water, contrasting the freedom of water with the firmness of pine and cypress. Yin and Yang coexist, combining hardness and softness, and Chinese culture always seeks balance and unity in opposition. The significance of pine in Chinese culture has long surpassed botany itself, and the intention it bestows refers to the lofty meaning of qi. The ancients often used pine trees to express their emotions and aspirations: "Why should we soar thousands of feet in the clouds?" "Cold and summer cannot be moved, and time cannot be defeated. Only pine and cypress are natural." This expresses the steadfast spirit of the ancients.
Pine, as a commonly used landscaping tree, is also used for outdoor furniture. In Chinese landscape painting, the trunk of Qu Song is often used as a tool to rely on. Furthermore, pine trees are used as natural pillars. In Yuan Mei's "Suiyuan Shi Hua", he recorded how to use six pine trees to make pavilions, and the Six Pine Pavilion became one of Yuan Mei's most proud works.
When creating the "Songyi Theater" in the Yunguo Mountain Tea Garden Art District, it coincided with warm spring. My favorite thing is to sit under a pine tree with a Maza and chat with the workers. The position where I sat one day happened to be facing several pine trees, with a total of eight carefully counted, with good posture and momentum. Why not rely on these eight pine trees to create an interesting object? Yuan Mei used six pine trees as a pavilion, and if I were eight pine trees as a chair, wouldn't it be pleasant? Simply design the seat in the form of a beauty seat. I quickly sketched the concept on the site, with a curved circle between several pine trees.
MeiRen Kao. Meirenjiao is a type of independent furniture in traditional Chinese architecture and gardens or a gray space that connects the attic and courtyard combined with outdoor corridors or is independent of pavilions. The most beautiful thing is the beauty leaning against the pavilion by the stream, where the beauty leans and the flowing water babbles.
Power and Beauty in Construction. I decided to use the method of creating sculptures to achieve a combination of rigidity and softness, with steel bars becoming the best material for achieving this curved flow structure. The interrelationships between pine trees are complex, and precise drawing designs cannot be achieved using standard design drawings without specific surveying and mapping work. Together with two workers and masters, relying on on-site intuition, I used steel bars to create three curves between the eight pine trees, and the pine trees immediately became whole. The top line defines the backrest on which the beauty rests, while the bottom two define the front and rear ends of the seat. The contour positioning and setting out are completed, and then the vertical reinforcement support is erected. The curved steel bars are inserted into the ground and intersect with the first three lines, and the intersection of the bidirectional curves is smoothly connected through repeated trial and error. Steel bars have toughness, and smaller curvature requires greater force to achieve smooth transitions. So, at some turning points, reflect strength and beauty.
Make friends with materials. Louis Kahn said that we need to understand what the materials say. Steel bars are the most basic building materials and usually disappear into buildings after being wrapped in concrete. This type of material, underestimated by urban projects due to its roughness and lack of refinement, has been re-recognized and repeatedly utilized in multiple rural construction practices. High strength, high toughness, easy to shape, and low-cost steel bars, in projects that rely heavily on on-site construction experience, seem to possess the properties of star materials. less than φ 10mm, gentle and slender, with strong flexibility, but without supporting strength; φ The diameter of 10-16mm has a certain strength and is within the free bending limit that can be achieved by manpower, resulting in excellent styling performance. Steel bars of different diameters can be used as structural supports, allowing for free passage through space and dancing in the air. Adapt to material characteristics, match on-site construction, and make friends with materials to achieve new efficiency, practicality, and aesthetics.
Craftsmanship spirit. Through several experiences in design and construction, I have gradually developed the process and essence of rural construction projects: determining major principles and retaining possibilities; Low price strategy, deep communication; Encouraging initiative and creativity. Local craftsmen are masters of craftsmanship and materials, and they have a unique say in the transformation of force. Because it takes a lot of effort to get started, what kind of effect is achieved in the hands of the craftsman? Designers need to have in-depth communication with them, and a consistent goal will make the construction work smoother. The experience of craftsmen will also provide timely feedback and local changes on some difficult points, which can sometimes have problems and architects need to make corrections. But often, there are unexpected effects that arise, and creative refinement appears in these possibilities with room for improvement.
Art, Nature, and People. The beauty seat is not only an outdoor seat in nature but also an aesthetic object in nature. Under the shade of eight pine trees, providing a space for more than ten people to sit together, and as the seat itself, the beauty becomes a natural viewing object with its smooth and dynamic lines, just like leaning against the elegant contemporary art in the pine forest, drawing a flowing Milky Way with the firm green atmosphere of the pine forest. Sitting on top, chatting with neighbors, children playing, couples taking photos, dancers dancing. Beauty relies on interacting with different groups of people to become a bridge between nature, art, and humanity.
