Tea Art Pavilion. Image © Youkun Chen
- Architects: Xiaohui Designer Studio
- Location: Moganshan, Deqing County, Huzhou, Zhejiang, China.
- Chief Designer: Xiaohui Lv
- Client: naked Retreats
- Area: 347.0 m2
- Project Year: 2012
- Photographs: Youkun Chen
Naked Gallery. Image © Youkun Chen
From the architect. Naked Gallery is located in naked Stales, a resort at the foot of Moganshan. It is made up of four special pavilions, of which the Tea Pavilion is the largest one built along the lake. The Bamboo Art Pavilion and the Pottery Art Pavilion are places for guests to experience the traditional handicrafts. The Project Pavilion is the demonstration center of naked Gallery. It is a principle of naked Stables to give priority to the environmentally-friendly design concept. The designer interprets the ecological concept by combining traditional materials with modern waste materials. “Three 75%” ecological design idea is proposed, that is including 75% of sustainable and renewable materials, 75% of recyclable materials and 75% of work by local craftsmen.
Site plan
1. Ecological creation strategies
Construction materials of naked Gallery include stones, rammed earth, moso bamboos, and steel joists. Stones are from where naked Gallery is located, while rammed earth is the earth excavated from the other sites in the resort. This can effectively resolve processing of part of the earth and form an ecological cycle for the architecture, namely “get from the soil, shape by the soil and return to the soil”. Moganshan is abundant in moso bamboos. Being tenacious, flexible and easy for assembling, these moso bamboos are perfect materials to form the supporting structure of the architecture. Use of natural materials allows the architecture to return to the earth by the end of its service life. This lives up to the concept of ecological architecture from the earth.
Project Pavilion. Image © Youkun Chen
The materials of the formwork and the joist of naked Gallery are collected from the waste materials of other architecture in the resort. According to the formwork, the architecture forms a natural circle. Use of waste materials realizes efficient recycling of resources, reduces generation of rubbish, and alleviates the influence on natural environment.
The project employs local craftsmen for its construction. Apart from saving cost, it can also increase construction efficiency. The local construction technology can give full play to the material performance and endow the architecture with the countryside aesthetic characteristics.
Local craft work. Image © Youkun Chen
2. Rammed earth walls
The designer has designed four different rammed earth walls to skillfully cater to every pavilion as a display space. The Pottery Art Pavilion adopts the traditional rammed earth construction technique to enhance the primitive and plain sense of the space, and arouse people’s deepest complex about soil. The Bamboo Art Pavilion gives full expression to the coexistence between two natural materials, namely bamboo and cement.
Pottery Art Pavilion. Image © Youkun Chen
Pottery Art Pavilion. Image © Youkun Chen
Walls of the Tea Art Pavilion and the Project Pavilion combine cement, bamboos and waste steel framed formwork. By doing so, the designer attempt to suggest that the waste materials and the traditional materials can co-exist with each other in a reasonable and renewable model.
Pottery Art Pavilion wall. Image © Youkun Chen
3. Bamboo structure roof truss
The bamboo structure roof truss of naked Gallery is characterized by favorable material performance, easiness of construction, and low construction cost. The traditional technology is adopted to achieve the antiseptic effects. Bamboos are boiled to eliminate oil, and then roasted above the fire. During the heating process, the bamboo softens. The external force bends it to form certain shape. It is difficult to put joints between each bamboo due to the cylindrical shape of itself, therefore screws are used for connections. The light and strongly antiseptic bamboo top branches are the best covering materials for the roof.
Bamboo structure roof truss . Image © Youkun Chen
The bamboo and the rammed earth set off each other to endow naked Gallery with a unique and primitive texture, and perfectly shows the rational value and economic efficiency of every material. During the construction process, the transportation fees and the construction rubbish are both cut by 90%.
Bamboo structure roof truss . Image © Youkun Chen