The forward-thinking Chinese architecture practice Wutopia Lab has designed an impressive new exhibition center, located nearby the Daoist Mount Luofu in Guangdong, China. The project marries architecture and nature to create a calming visual experience, fitting for a building used for traditional Chinese medicine. ‘Aluminium Mountain’ borrows from elements of Daoist philosophy, pairing three subterranean cone-shaped buildings with curving ponds and gardens. Its circular geometry is surrounded by an undulating landscape design that was conceived of by Z Studio. Chief architect of the project Yu Ting was inspired by a phrase from Chinese literature ‘one sea and three mountains’. He decided to use the architecture to create the three mountains, or circular buildings, that would emerge from a sea-like landscape to form an “earthly paradise.”
When lit up at night, the buildings emulate a giant lamp. Most of the building’s functions are submerged underground, sheltered beneath a metal roof that is held up by large concrete columns. “I wanted to create a slowed sense of time,” explains Ting. “I used continuous circles to form the underground space, a bubble-like maze that includes the model exhibition space and art gallery. In a layered maze, I hope that visitors could lose their sense of time and space.”
