Zibo OCT Art Center

Zibo, China
Undulating roof with central courtyard
Photo © XIA ZHI PICTURES
Southeast view
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Main entrance and landscape water pool
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Aerial view of the central courtyard
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Central courtyard
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Main entrance
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Lobby and reception
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Exhibition hall
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Exhibition hall
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Semi outdoor space
Photo © XIA ZHI PICTURES
Concrete and stone wall details
Photo © XIA ZHI PICTURES
Concrete and stone wall details
Photo © XIA ZHI PICTURES
Entrance to multifunctional room
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Multifunctional room
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Sunken courtyard
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Stone walls and water pool
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Concrete and stone walls
Photo © Jin Weiqi
View from the water pool to outdoor space
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Northeast aerial view
Photo © XIA ZHI PICTURES
Night view of the central courtyard
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Exhibition hall
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Natural light is brought in through the windows of varying scales
Photo © Jin Weiqi
Siteplan
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
Ground floor plan
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
Underground floor plan
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
Section 1-1
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
Section 2-2
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
Section 3-3
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
East Elevation
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
South Elevation
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
Axonometric drawing
Drawing © Studio Zhu Pei
Architects
Studio Zhu-Pei
Location
Zibo, China
Year
2020
Client
Zibo OCT Group CO., LTD.
Main Contractor
Taixing No.1 Construction Group CO., LTD.
Architecture, Interior and Landscape Design
Studio Zhu Pei
Design Principal
Zhu Pei
Design Team
Wilson Nugroho Markhono, Yina Luo Moore, You Changchen, Zhang Shun, Liu Yian, Ji Ming, Chen Yanhong, Liu Ling
Cooperative Design in Landscape
L&A Design
Cooperative Design in Structural and MEP
Zibo Architecture Design and Research Institute
Consultant Façade
King Glass Engineering CO., LTD.
Consultant Lighting
Ning Field Lighting Design CO., LTD.
Design Year
2019
Completion Year
2020
Site area
27,792sqm
Gross floor area
2,471sqm
Photography
Jin Weiqi, XIA ZHI PICTURES

Zibo OCT Art Center, an introverted experimental work, is in an open area far away from the city. Its architectural form is conceived from the traditional Chinese academy-“Heyuan”, a central courtyard was surrounded by several houses.

This porous, eaves-out, and ring-shaped building with a huge roof overhang is related to the local culture and responds to the specific climate. It also highlights the publicity of the building. Under the environment of shade and rain, people can also do semi-outdoor activities.

The central courtyard, a void space, can be transformed into a gathering space especially for the opening of the exhibition. When it’s a rainy day, semi-outdoor activities are permitted in the corridor. The building is a sponge-like porous building, which can accommodate many people, create a lot of shadows, achieve shading and shelter from rain, etc.

The architecture is simple and relatively rough with its material characters, such as concrete roof, masonry stone wall, and so on. The hyperboloid roof sags due to gravity in nature, which also brings good tension to space. Although people are in a seemingly rectangular and simple space, due to the change of the roof, the homogeneous space becomes very tense. Some places will be tight, and some will be loose, reflecting the sense of movement and strength of the building. The roof is made of rough fair-faced concrete poured on site. The method of laying the walls is based on local rough masonry stone walls commonly used by locals, which is characteristic of northern China, especially in Shandong Province.

The creative thinking of Zibo OCT Art Center is a profound experiment focusing on structural form and tectonic expressiveness. Like all the past works, it has always been fascinating to explore column-free, horizontally extended structural forms and tectonic expressiveness while shaping porous, sponge architecture with wandering experience.

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Magazine

Other Projects by Studio Zhu-Pei

Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum
Jingdezhen, China
Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum (Design)
Jingdezhen, China
Minsheng Museum of Modern Art
Beijing, China
Himalaya Center
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Dali Museum of Contemporary Art
Dali, China