Text description provided by the architects. The Background for the construction of Zhou Chunya Art Studio is the actively promoted process of New Rural Movement in the suburban of Jiading District, Shanghai. By introducing celebrated artists to setup bases in the villages, the remote and segregated country areas were expected to share the dynamics of development from the city, and a marriage between the emerging culture industry and scenic country landscape could be achieved.
Three sides of the site are surrounded by rivers witch were attached with typical south-eastern country landscape. A concrete structure and appearance was chosen for this building in order to cope with this natural and wild environment, and hopefully in this way, the quality and atmosphere of the artistic space would be illustrated.
The design was started with the working and living requirements from the artist himself, and also with a careful consideration on the features of the site. Generally, the studio was distinguished into two parts. The eastern part is two-stories high, mainly a private space for the artist to paint, study and sleep. Therefore, this linear volume is more solid and exclusive to the outside in order to keep the privacy.
On the western part the side, there was an existing rebuilt traditional wooden frame building at the very beginning. It was preserved and used as a main axis to organize the layout of the new developed area. The courtyard system, presenting a classical meaning in space, provided stages for the frequent public activities of the artist.
The height difference between two parts was used to make the roof of western part a beautiful terrace with an open view into the surrounding country landscape. The terrace was connected with the other working and living spaces by various paths, and it would expanded the public space of the ground floor, provided an multiple usage in form of different combination with the rest part of the building. To accommodate the rainy season, the drainage system of the roof has been designed in an open way integrating the structure of the skylights. In order to adapt with the raining season, the drainage system of the roof was designed in an open way and to be integrated with the structure of the skylight window in details.