Great (bamboo) Wall Guest House

 

Architect/Firm: Kengo Kuma

Location: countryside near Beijing

Finial writing:

The Great (Bamboo) Wall Guest House designed by Kengo Kuma is located in the countryside of Beijing. According to the book “Kengo Kuma works and projects” it says “the architect wants to express the perfect synthesis between architecture and the land, between human intervention and the work of nature, with rare poetry.” To me, I would like to combine this sentence in one word, it would be “Nature”. For this building, I think the architect wants to create a nature space inside the house, for people to think, chat. (The bamboo lounge) The architect mainly uses the light, shadow and green material these nature elements to build a “nature” atmosphere, and the bamboo lounge is totally open to outside, it has no wall, with glass ceiling. Because of this, the building is kind of talking, speaking to the nature. Also it is very interesting to notice that the entire roof is colored in black. Nevertheless, we won’t feel any sense of heavy, stress of that building. I think this is because of the using of bamboo. The architect lays a lot of bamboos in front of the exterior, as we all know, bamboo is very light and thin, so it actually makes the roof floating. Again, above the bamboo lounge, glass is used to replace the concrete. The affects for this is that it creates an amazing phenomenon of “Nature”. Like the material, the lights go into the lounge, and the beautiful shadows of the bamboos. Last but not least, the architect invites the water inside this lounge as well by making a pool on the ground. Eventually, this bamboo lounge has all nature quality.

Beijing as a capital of China, it is now developing dramatically. I think Kengo Kuma recognized this, and he wants to design a house that is away from the busy city. From the location is near the countryside we can see that Kengo Kuma wants to bring nature into the house, and offer a chance for the house owner to embody nature. He achieves this goal very successfully by choosing suitable material, and creating nature qualities inside the house. This is a great opportunity for me to study both of the house and nature.    

concept, collage, material image:

model:

                   

Drawing:

              

Resources:

1．Alini Luigi. Great (Bamboo) Wall. In“Kengo Kuma works and projects”  Milan: Electa, 2006

2．Oddo, Francesca “Great (Bamboo) wall house Kengo Kuma. Floornature (May 2006)”

http://www.floornature.com/articoli/articolo.php?id=556&sez=3&tit=Great-

(accessed September 16, 2009).

3．Azby, Brown.  “Making magic with materials and lights” Kateigaho

http://int.kateigaho.com/mar04/architect-kuma.html (accessed September 16, 2009)

4．Marcelo Villegas. Forward, index. In “NEW BAMBOO Architecture and design”

5．Bognár Botond, Kengo Kuma “Kengo Kuma selected works”

P35-36

http://www.springerlink.com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/content/t6k00770217801gr/fulltext.pdf

(accessed September 20, 2009).

6. Ronald Q. knapp. The Chinese House As a living space. In “Chinese Houses The Architectural Heritage of a Nation”

7. Azby Brown. A forward by Kengo Kuma. In “The very small house Japanese ideas for living well in limited space”