Zeya Longxi Art Gallery
Zeya is known as a provincial-level scenic spot with the reputation of Wenzhou "West Yandang". The original name is "Zhaixia". Zeya is the transliteration of "Zhaixia" in Wenzhou dialect. Zeya is rich in heritage with the traditional buildings of Ming and Qing Dynasties ; The Paper Mountain Culture (the national key cultural relics protection unit-Quadruple Papermaking Workshop), known as the "living fossil of Chinese papermaking", is still active in the mountains.
The Longxi Art Museum is located on the Longxi River Landscape Belt on the west side of Zeya Government. The land plot is small and narrow. The east side is the intersection of Tongjing Road and Wenyuan Road, and it is also the gate of Zeya Scenic Area. The local houses, self-operated shops and mobile vendors are kept. The daily activities of the villagers makes this area more worldly . The project is expected to face the city with the attitude of renewing the local cultural network and inviting the people to participate in rural experience, and become a rural art gallery as Zeya's landmark. Therefore,the focus of this design is how to deal with the relationship between the building and Longxi River, local buildings, and local humanities, as well as exploring the critical relationship between towns and villages.
The project faces water landscape on the west and the major roads on the east. By using the height difference between the plot and the landscape trail, the plot ground was dug 2 meters underneath to dissolve the pressure of the art gallery and form a natural separation from the main road. Following the trend, the building fell down with 5 interlocking and scattered volumes along the shore, responding to the traditional construction culture of Zeya's Quadruple Papermaking Workshop. At the same time, the open space on the south side of site is used as the entrance plaza , and the reserved space on the north side is used as the secondary entrance; the local overlapping water landscape and waterside platform are introduced on the west side of the building to connect with the original walking trail; on the east side, the gap between building and roads is used to forms a country lane road with elevation difference; the three routes through the site and the building provides a larger range of activities for tourists, local residents, and visitors to enhance the fun of wandering.
The five spaces descending from the south to the north are successively composed of functional areas such as reception area, exhibition area, and coffee area, and are connected in series by steps and ramps in the overlap of the space. A staircase in the reception area and the last coffee area leads to the second floor, forming a complete closed circulation loop. The east and west facades of the building are open and free. On the premise of meeting the needs of indoor display, the connection between the residents' sight and the Longxi river landscape is preserved.
Considering that the local stone is relatively scarce, and concrete has become the main material for the construction . Therefore, the building adopts cast-in-place wood-formed concrete, which improves the stability of the structure while ensuring the purity of the space; at the same time; The staggered carbonized wood formwork gives the concrete wall a natural wood grain texture, which increases the affinity of the building and responds to the surrounding natural environment.
Art gallery, as a product of urban cultural development,when it is implanted in Chinese villages,we try to link the building with the site environment, regional culture and residents' activities to weaken the inherent impression of the so-called "non-ruralization", so as to explore a critical relationship with low interference and strong integration with the countryside. At the same time, we try to respond to the innovative attributes of the art museum and its political mission to drain the countryside with unconventional spatial operations, seeking a new rural architectural expression and spatial experience in the local area.
