Currently, the experimental Red Rail train is just a half-mile test track on steel poles with a two-carriage train carrying passengers between elevated platforms. Once the tests are complete, the government plans to extend the trail to 4.7 miles and boost speeds up to 120 km/h (75 mph). The train will offer commuters an incredibly smooth and quiet ride from stop to stop, lifting them above the gridlock on the streets below and operating even during power outages that otherwise grind the province to a halt.

Maglev technology isn’t new. It was first conceptualized way back in 1904 by rocket scientist Robert Goddard, who was just a freshman college student at the time. In 1910, French engineer Emile Bachelet applied for a patent for a rail car running on alternating-current electromagnets, and in 1935, German engineer Hermann Klemper proved that levitation without a power source is possible. It took until 1972 for the first maglev train to be built (in Germany, as an experiment) while Japan tested its electrodynamic (repulsion) magnetic train system in the same decade. In 1984, the maglev system was finally available to the public for commercial use, but it never quite took off on a large scale.

Maglev technology is sustainable, and it works — so why isn’t it more common? It partially comes down to cost and material availability. Most maglev trains use electromagnets, which require a significant amount of electricity to levitate. Permanent magnets, on the other hand, create a constant repelling force to hold the train aloft, saving at least 31 percent of the energy usually required to suspend the trains using electromagnetic levitation technology.

The rare earth elements required to make permanent magnets aren’t exactly easy to come by, and about 40 percent of the world’s known reserves are located in China (with the second-highest concentration in Vietnam). Six state-run Chinese companies produced 85 percent of the world’s refined rare earth elements in 2020. That means this impressive breakthrough will likely remain in China only, at least for the foreseeable future. As of 2022, the United States has no maglev trains at all, mostly due to a lack of federal funding. Other countries, including Japan and Germany, are currently working on more conventional electromagnetic maglev networks, but remain hampered by the high cost of construction.

“The permanent magnet maglev train offers personalized and intelligent transport, which can complement subways and light rail,” Long told China’s state-run publication PLA Daily. “In the future, it will also help to create a new engine for the high-end equipment industry and give China a new advantage in leading the world on rail transit.”

The post China’s Incredible Sky Train Silently Soars on the Power of Magnets first appeared on Dornob.

“I was very impressed by the village. It was quite beautiful,” explains founder and architect Sou Fujimoto. “The weather was mostly cloudy when I visited there, with a bit of misty and foggy air surrounding the entire village.”

The resulting ringed structure “was inspired by the site itself, especially the fog and clouds that diffused over the village,” adds Fujimoto. “They were like buildings floating in the air, or rather, like roofs connecting nature, buildings, and various sceneries around. The continuing terraced fields created an architectural image and made the whole area very dynamic and vivid. Therefore, we proposed a floating canopy just like a cloud, hugging the landscape and being part of it.”

The plan for the officially titled “Fangyukong Cultural & Creative Resort Complex” began with the main building, an open space to be used for exhibitions, conferences, and art galleries. Enclosed with floor-to-ceiling window walls, this structure allows for maximum connection with the surrounding nature but still provides protection from snow and wind. The ceiling is lined with dry, woven grasses, continuing the feeling of symbiosis with the outdoor world.

From the main building, a steel-framed canopy covered in more natural fibers weaves its way in a circle down the multi-terraced complex, with its lowest point shading a glass-enclosed swimming pool and nearly connecting to the adjacent river, adding to the flow of the landscape instead of interrupting it.

“While distinguishing buildings and natural fields, the canopy creates a view just like a huge courtyard facing the sky,” the firm explains. “…We named the project ‘Flowing Cloud’ from the impression of the environment when we first visited the site, but also for the soft shape of the entire canopy.”

In the middle of the pavilion’s loop is an outdoor amphitheater of flower-filled steppes, accessible by stone staircases on either side.

The firm adds: “We look forward to having people come to visit, lingering around the poetic village, walking under the floating canopy, and enjoying the picturesque views of the beautiful nature.”

Hokkaido-native Sou Fujimoto grew up exploring the many mountains and forest of his island, spawning his life-long love of the natural world. He is particularly inspired by cave dwellings, which he says represent “a raw space where function was determined based on human behavior.” A few years after graduating in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, he founded his eponymous architecture firm in 2000, becoming known for his houses with light structures and permeable enclosures that allowed residents to stay in touch with their surroundings.

The firm’s work became well known around Japan, landing them major contracts in Europe including the design of London’s temporary Serpentine Gallery and the redesign of a plot in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. In 2021, Fujimoto earned his master’s degree from l’École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. In addition to his design work, he lectures regularly at the Universities of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Minato.

The post Sou Fujimoto’s Flowing Cloud Pavilion Winds Through a Mountain Village first appeared on Dornob.

Shanghai based-firm 100 Architects were charged by the local government with “activat[ing] this pedestrian junction” in a brand new commercial and residential area of the port city. For maximum head-turning value, they decided to turn the entire park into a metaphorical volcanic eruption filled with bright, attention-grabbing reds, oranges, and yellows.

The 14,000-square-foot park uses small stairways to signal the beginnings of a figurative outpouring from the Earth’s crust. Tiered, overlapping shade structures throughout symbolize the infectious lava of fun venting upwards and spilling back down through a slide and over the wide steps.

The magma continues its inviting flow around a picnic table and stools. A ramp from an adjacent building is painted brilliant orange, pouring the excitement down towards a large playground. Visitors can follow fire-colored paths around the park and tackle climbing shapes, small hills, and a giant tic-tac-toe table along the way. A swing pergola, seesaws, more slides, punching bags, and tunnel tubes all beckon to passersby. LED rope lights trim the shade and play structures, and spotlights on the trees provide an enticing ambiance at night.

For less agile pedestrians, 100 Architects also included several seating and resting areas with sun-blocking canopies. A mahjong table and adult sized-swings complete the experience.

“The flow of magma creates an intense and vivid circuit of events and spaces arising by its side,” the designers explain. “Altogether the proposal creates an incandescent public space that acts as an urban attractor and entertainment hotspot.”

According to the company website, “100 Architects was born with the mission of improving our cities and the experience of citizens in the public realm.” They are known for their colorful and playful temporary street installations throughout China, and for their quirky landscape architecture in places like Hong Kong, Mexico City, and Santiago. Energetic colors and an abundance of geometric shapes are hallmarks of their designs. The Magma Flow project fits nicely into the firm’s overall niche, so-called “neighborhood interventions.”

The company adds “the main objective of this typology is to trigger a massive public interest to the place through a strong visual impact, usually of a permanent nature, encouraging the rise of high public affluence and establishing an urban landmark that can cultivate important human dynamics and boost commercial activity.”

Ningbo is the second most populous city in Zhejiang Province, China, and 100 Architects hopes that the Magma Flow project will be “of such magnitude and notoriety” that it’ll “impact not only the immediate surrounding urban environment, but rather the urban dynamics of a whole neighborhood, becoming an urban landmark and a local attractor of social interactions in a given neighborhood.”

While a real-life volcano might be more likely to inspire fear than fun, it’s hard not to get swept up in Magma Flow’s colorful currents.

The post China’s Magma Flow Park Takes Its Design Cues from Volcanoes first appeared on Dornob.

Next time you watch those stunning triple axles and gnarly tricks from the skiers and boarders, take note of the following architectural marvels:

The Beijing National Stadium

Built ahead of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the Beijing National Stadium (also known as the Bird’s Nest), was conceived by the inventive Swiss architecture studio Herzog & Meuron.

Following the Olympic Committee’s decision to start reusing venues for a more eco-friendly, sustainable approach, the National Stadium has the distinction of being the only stadium to host both winter and summer Olympics. In addition to its unique shape and dynamic design, the Bird’s Nest also just so happens to be the world’s largest steel structure — making it the ideal place to host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Olympics within its illuminated latticed walls.

National Speed Skating Oval

Designed by architecture studio Populous (themselves no strangers to spectacular stadiums), the National Speed Skating Oval is one of only a few new structures built for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Built on the former site of the 2008 hockey and archery fields, the Oval’s mind-bendingly melty shape (designed to let the spectators hear even the faintest ice scrape) is certainly distinctive — but it’s the 22 strands of electric blue light circling the stadium that really make it a showstopper. Dubbed “The Ice Ribbon,” the Oval is destined to be one of the highlights of this year’s Winter Games.

Big Air Shougang

Completed in 2019, the rollicking ramp Big Air Shougang marks another new addition to the Beijing Winter Olympics roster. Designed by TeamMinus, the structure is “the world’s first permanent big air structure” and will, not surprisingly, host skiing and snowboarding’s trickiest, most extreme big air events. Set on the site of a former steel mill, the ramp itself has an industrial feel to it, while the colorful aluminum side panels add bravado and flair to the scene.

National Sliding Center

Located in the Yanqing Olympic Zone north of Beijing, the National Sliding Center is yet another new addition to the Winter Olympics’ stellar architectural lineup. Designed by Atelier Li Xinggang, the over one-mile-long sliding track is topped with an impressive tiled wooden roof covering the winding trails below.

The primary site of the bobsledding, skeleton, and luge events at the 2022 Olympic Games, the Sliding Center is the first of its kind in China — and only the third to be built in Asia.

National Ski Jumping Center

Another inventive TeamMinus creation, the National Ski Jumping Center hosted the ski jump and Nordic combined events during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Now, it’s set to become an athlete’s training facility and luxe tourist resort post-games.

Nicknamed “Snow Ruyi” because of its resemblance to a ruyi, a traditional Chinese talisman representing power and good fortune, the center is located in the Zhangjiakou Zone northwest of Beijing — itself already a popular ski destination. Topped with an over 100-foot-high circular viewing platform complete with a panoramic restaurant, the Ski Jumping Center will surely be a destination for years to come due to its fabulous location, stunning vistas, and proximity to a new intercity railway.

While many of the structures at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics were repurposed faves from the 2008 Summer Games, we also saw an impressive new lineup of structures built expressly to host this year’s exciting events.

Next time the games roll around, take a moment between cheering Team USA and catching some curling to get a glimpse of some of the most inventive new architecture out there. You’ll be glad you did.

The post The Architecture of the 2022 Winter Olympics Gets a Gold Medal in Cool first appeared on Dornob.

During their first visits to the site, the architects were struck by the look of the large orange gantry cranes, which reminded them of “living alien creatures with a sense of surrealism.” That led them to a vivid color scheme and a sci-fi-flavored vision for elevated buildings that feel like a futuristic, free-walking city, “seemingly arriving here from elsewhere, and perhaps traveling elsewhere once again someday,” says lead architect Ma Yansong.

Working with the China Academy of Building Research (CASR), MAD Architects plans to transform the current cargo terminal in Chongqing’s Liangjiang New Area into a new city complex and tourist attraction. The most visually striking part is called the Yangtze River Skywalk, a 1400-foot-long complex made up of six separate but interconnected buildings that seem to rise and fall in an organic line when viewed from a distance. This mimics the rhythm of the industrial freight terminal cranes in both form and color, while their elevated positions preserve open views of the river.

An aluminum curtain wall lends a surreal feel to the building, which also hosts mixed-use retail spaces, restaurants, and other commercial areas. Beneath the “floating” skywalk is a new Cruise Ship Landscape Park and Cruise Ship Hall that extends the Cuntan Central Golden Axis Pier to form a new link between the adjacent Pier Park and Century Cuntan Park. Together, they’ll create a massive new urban green space offering scenic views of the river and city from a place that’s currently unpleasantly industrial.

“Chongqing has mountains and waters,” says Yansong. “However, the Yangtze River is more than just a natural landscape in Chongqing. Because of human activities such as shipping traffic and industrial transport, this mountain city is also full of energy and movement. We want to transform this energy in Chongqing from traces of industry into an energy that stimulates the imagination. People can feel the kinetic energy of the city here, but also imagine the public spaces of the future.”

MAD says the scheme will create a new urban landmark while shifting the feel from industrial to a greener, more attractive vision of urban life. The Chongqing Cuntan International Cruise Center is part of a larger effort by local officials to transform the area for tourists and residents alike. In fact, they imagine that this stretch of the Yangtze will become “the world’s preeminent river cruise port” with an unusual mix of ship, port, city, tourism, shopping, and entertainment attractions. Construction is expected to begin in November 2022, with completion by 2027.

The post MAD Architects’ Cruise Ship Terminal Brings Futuristic Alien Vibes to Chongqing, China first appeared on Dornob.

Designed by Shanghai-based X+ Living, the firm drew inspiration for the new bookstore from the city of Shenzhen itself. Within just 40 years, the special economic zone has transformed from a small fishing village to a globally influential metropolis of innovation and entrepreneurship. “These achievements and history are the result of the sweat and hard work of pioneers. The city has been forged by countless dreamers,” chief architect Li Xiang notes.

“When I received the design assignment for Zhongshuge in Shenzhen last year, I had led the designs for several completed Zhongshuge across China,” she adds. “In the process of researching the cultural background of this city, I realized that I could design a space which could become a symbol of Shenzhen itself as an inclusive and vibrant city of migrants, paying tribute to all those who have struggled to make history in this city.”

“Thus, this retail space, which seems to have grown out of a giant art installation, was born. Straddling the earth and sky, it is examined as an otherworldly presence that creates a subtle experience of unease mixed with familiarity, making the space a proposition posing silent questions to the viewers.”

Xiang and her team also took Maxim Gorky’s quote “books are the ladder of human progress” as the metaphorical basis for the store’s horizontal spiraling staircase. The enormous coil can easily be seen from outside the store thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows, beckoning passers-by to step in and explore the world of knowledge flowing through the expanse.

The staircase’s handrails each take the form of a clock hand seeming to rotate around an invisible clock in the center. They “allude to the fact that this is a ladder of history that has been built up over countless hours, conveying the sense that history is being pushed through time at a rapid pace,” according to the firm.

A table-height black bookshelf also runs through the vortex of the corkscrew, allowing patrons to feel like they are entering the flow of time and insight.

Continuing the ladder of wisdom imagery, X+ Living combined a host of stepped bookshelves to make a towering “sacred temple of knowledge” in the store’s forum room. A dark, mirrored ceiling and an assortment of warm and cool lighting make the space feel like it expands forever.

The store also includes a children’s area with a much more whimsical aesthetic. Decked out in lilac, peach, and salmon, the bookcases in here are designed in the shapes of childhood favorites, including a carousel, a castle, and a race car. Best of all, the room incorporates playground items like carousel horses and a train for the ultimate interactive reading experience.

Shenzhen Zhongshuge is the ninth retail branch that Li Xiang and X+ Living have designed, each one seemingly outdoing the last in terms of creativity and visual enchantment. Their imaginative work can be followed on both Xiang’s Instagram page and the company website.

The post X+Living’s Newest Bookstore Design Revolves Around a Spiraling “Ladder of Wisdom” first appeared on Dornob.

The proposed Xinxiang Tourism Center in China certainly ticks all the above boxes, and then some. Designed by architects Qiang Zou and Mathieu Forest, the structure looks to be the centerpiece of a new tourism district highlighting the area’s winter sports history through its design.

But this is no ordinary building. The forward-thinking architects aim to create a shifting, translucent, and almost magical space befitting the building’s overall purpose to draw visitors to the new tourist district. Composed of nine blocks that are reminiscent of gigantic ice cubes, some of which overlap and offset each other, the structure filters and refracts light as if it’s moving and changing before your very eyes.

What appears on the surface as opacity is, in fact, an overlapping facade of ice crystals that create depth and luminosity both in and outside the structures. In a recent statement, the architects described the center as “sculpture out of scale, a pure and monumental volume.” And truly, this description appears to be eerily accurate, as the structure certainly resembles a piece of modern art, and its stacked blocks, though seemingly random, are all placed quite intentionally.

The building itself is a chameleon of sorts. Meant to change and shift depending on the viewers’ perspective because of the cubes’ placement and reflective light play, the effect is dazzling. The more you look, the more you see. And despite its resemblance to ice cubes, the overall feel is inviting rather than cold.

It’s also a mass of incongruity, “a question of hiding — whilst showing — to provoke mystery and the desire to approach,” according to the architects. Blending simplicity of shape with the complexity of “otherwordly” design elements, the structure’s facade, made from printed glass panels, is ever-changing and refractive, playing with natural light in an interesting way that gives the building a new look dependent on a number of factors, including the natural and manmade lighting around at any given moment, the current weather conditions, season, time of day, and, of course, the viewers’ individual interpretations.

Described by the architects as a “lighthouse that rises among the surrounding buildings,” the new Xinxiang Tourism Center will certainly stand out from the crowd and be a defining fixture in the area — a beacon of light and mystique, opacity and fluidity that unites the district despite its relatively simple geometric shape.

The post China’s Upcoming Xinxiang Tourism Center Looks Like Stacked Ice Cubes first appeared on Dornob.

In fact, there’s now such a huge selection of strange Chinese buildings to choose from, Archy.com started an annual Ugliest Building Survey, and its 12th annual contest has a whopping 87 contenders in the running. That number may dwindle in the years to come, since President Xi Jinping issued a government directive calling for an end to “oversized, xenocentric, weird” projects, and that’s part of the point of the contest. The organizers hope pointing out ugly architecture will “promote architects’ social responsibility” and cut back on wastefulness.

Voting is open until December, when a commission of architects will select the final 10 winners. Here are some of the projects currently in the lead:

Donping Poly Plaza, Foshan, Guangdong

Nobody really wants a big imposing building in their city to look sort of like a modernized Eye of Sauron, do they? Incorporating a four-story atrium with a flying staircase design, a basement level, and four towers, this complex is supposed to be a lively gathering place for residents of Foshan New City. The reasons Archy listed for nominating this project include “extremely inharmonious with the surrounding environment and natural conditions,” “idolizes Western culture,” and “weird and vulgar.” Voters mostly just think it’s depressing.

Xi’an International Children’s Art Museum, Shanghai

Some people think this school inspired by the “Arabian Magic Carpet” is cute and fitting for its purpose, with its undulating roof and facade full of round cut-outs. Others seem to be experiencing a touch of trypophobia (fear of holes). It has been called “really psychologically uncomfortable,” “disgusting,” “vulgar” and even “secret terrorism.” One voter wrote of the building’s pale beige curves and orifices, “it’s like a breathing monster composed entirely of flesh and blood.”

Glass Bridge Tower of Jiuhuanghsan Mountain in Mianyang, Sichuan

Something about the monumental figures standing on either end of this glass bridge in the Jiuhuangshan Scenic Area seems to make it extra terrifying for many onlookers. Comments include “Really insulted the beauty of this mountain,” “nightmare-inducing,” and “don’t look at me, I’m afraid.”

Hainan Danzhou Hengdahaihua Island Complex

There are so many outlandish structures on this series of three manmade tourist islands that the Ugly Buildings contest organizers couldn’t choose – they just lumped them all together as one big anger-inducing mass. “This is the garbage dump,” wrote one voter. “A game of capital, making a pile of rubbish, what a bad thing to do with this money,” wrote another.

Violin Church, Yanbu, Foshan, Guangdong

This local church isn’t even the only violin-shaped building in China, but locals hate its garishness, its overuse of concrete, its high cost, and the way it has apparently overshadowed more demure adjacent buildings. It was nominated because “the function of the building is extremely unreasonable.” Fair enough.

South Gate of Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University

You might be surprised to learn that this comparatively tame-looking structure has earned the most votes by far. But Chinese voters are annoyed that such a high-cost, high-profile project is both painful to look at and dysfunctional. Apparently, the unnecessarily extravagant gate impedes both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, forcing everyone to stare at it even longer while they’re stuck in the area. “When the design plan came out, the teachers and students in the school objected to the curse,” wrote one voter.

The post China’s Ugliest Buildings Contest Shames the Wasteful and Distasteful first appeared on Dornob.

The old Bund Post Office was the very first one to be built in the province, giving it considerable significance as the center of the community. But its building had seen better days, and its location was no longer convenient for the largest possible number of local residents. The new facility needed to reestablish its former role and evoke a sense of nostalgia, while also shattering the boundaries “of what is traditionally associated with the concept of the post office,” explains design firm Yatofu.

The firm chose to collaborate with a neighboring business, Nordic Books, to combine the post office and shop as a single attraction. That gave them a bigger budget to work with, more opportunities to create dramatic visuals, and the ability to add some contemporary cultural interests to the mix. Occupying a three-story building, the new Bund Post Office makes use of a rich, evocative color palette that draws from historic references to emphasize its connection to the past.

Passersby are immediately drawn to the building’s exterior, upon which the entrance is framed by soft white illuminated panels. The large glass doors provide a view straight in to an arch-shaped bookcase in vivid red on the back wall. That’s your first sign that this is unlike any post office you’ve ever imagined. All the way at the top of the building, a ring of windows hints at the day-lit space you’ll find when you climb the last set of stairs.

Upon entering the dramatic double-height atrium, you’ll find the postal service counter set among gift and souvenir retail displays. Its fluted counter mimics that of the translucent white metal screens that line the staircase and the graphic shapes on the green floors, which complement the warm pink and clay hues throughout the space. A checkout counter for the bookstore is set into another end of the room, and the stairs sweep you up to a mezzanine lined with crimson bookshelves. The perforated metal mesh triples as a railing, built-in functional writing surfaces, and retail display structures.

Two built-in reading booths featuring green leather and custom lighting are also found on this secondary level, and when you follow the stairs to the top and cross a small bridge, you find a private children’s event and workshop space lined with undulating panels of glass windows. The layout here is inspired by community rooftop gardens.

“The brief from the client was posed as a question: How can we reimagine the role of the post office in the community?” says Yatofu. “The initial research led to the realization that post offices are often seen as most necessary during times of celebration – this means holidays, festivals, birthdays, and of course, the culturally significant Chinese New Year. This led to the redefinition of the brief itself as creating a post office that combined its normal functions with gift retail, cultural events, and a children’s event/play space.”

This captivating interior design was nominated for a 2021 INDE award in the shopping category, which recognizes progressive, innovative projects from 14 countries in the Indo-Pacific, and long-listed in the small retail interior category of the Dezeen Awards 2021.

The post Yatofu’s Festive Palette Makes This Space in Zhejiang the Cutest Post Office Ever first appeared on Dornob.

Designed by SYN Architects, the “Hometown Moon” chapel in the Shandong village of Tai’an is a two-story structure with an enormous semi-circle of glass and concrete sitting atop a reflecting pool, causing it to appear as one great shining orb. Inside the ground floor, an identical half-circle descends from a mirrored ceiling, producing a similar effect.

The 11,000 square-foot ceremonial hall was commissioned by the Shandong Lushang Group as part of a larger project to develop a 20-square-mile mountainous region of rural villages, and to bring more tourism and business to the area. The Hometown Moon is the second attraction on that particular hill. In 2019, the billowy “Hometown Cloud” structure emerged from the green hillsides of Tai’an, but the regional planners wanted more.

The Moon was strategically placed to face the Cloud without blocking the view of the beautiful mountain behind it. SYN Architects took great care to incorporate the Hometown Cloud into their plans for the chapel, creating an entire experience with nature for visitors. For instance, the parking lot was purposefully set far away from both structures, requiring guests to take a roughly 10-minute walk through the bushes and rocks, further immersing themselves in the natural surroundings and breaking away from their normal lives.

As they journey, tourists will catch glimpses of the semi-circle rising above the pond, and the spectacle will dip playfully in and out of sight until they reach the chapel where the moon then looms large in front of the surrounding landscape.

Once inside, the lunar-like orb continues to glow, suspended from above and flanked by mossy rocks that mimic the outside world. Visitors can reach out and feel the celestial sphere as it almost touches the floor.

The symbolism of the Moon, especially one that never sets, was chosen for this event center, especially considering the many weddings that may be held in the chapel. Single individuals, entering as less than whole, emerge bonded with their other half, now a fully completed entity. The traditional Buddhist principles of harmony, perpetuity, comprehensiveness, and endlessness are also embedded in the contemplative spaces throughout the facility.

The Beijing-based company hopes that connection with those values and the organic world around the Hometown Moon will provide a long-lasting repose from the rush of every-day living.

“Since the completion of the building, it has started a dialogue with users and nature. I look forward to seeing it being modified over time, further blending with the environment as the trees grow,” says Zou Yingxi, lead architect of SYN architects. “Each architecture has two destinies: being destroyed or being protected. I look forward to creating an architecture that is reluctant to be destroyed. It will be the highest achievement of my career. For this reason, I will bestow deeper meaning to my architecture and create more emotional bonds for its users. I hope that the Moon can become this kind of architecture. Even if it disappears in time, it will still exist in our spiritual world.”

The post SYN Architects Shoot for the Moon with New Event Hall in China first appeared on Dornob.

The owners of this 1,065-square-foot two-bedroom apartment facing a forested hillside clearly aren’t risk-averse. They trusted the youthful architects and interior designers of 000 Design to craft a home bursting with personality, incorporating unexpected materials, clashing patterns, vivid colors, and most of all, fun. From the moment you walk in the door, you know you aren’t in an ordinary apartment.

The designers decided to throw out conventional ideas about how the feel of a home should be different from that of a business. Why not incorporate elements you’d normally see in high-end retail or commercial design instead of intimate residential spaces, if it results in a space that still feels relaxing and inspiring?

“With the development of internet and society, people spend more time living and working at their own dwelling,” says 000 Design. “We are willing to change the stereotype of a residence space which originally should be only cozy, warm, and relaxing. We hope this apartment also shows an impression of passion, fashion, and visual impact, [giving] a different attitude of the lifestyle with more freedom and maybe a little more [angst].”

An abstract mosaic of red, pink, yellow, blue, and white hexagonal tiles unifies the entire home, surrounding the main entrance and continuing inside the primary bedroom on several walls and ceilings. The small size and random patterns of this mosaic are contrasted by larger, more minimalist square white tile on the floor and on the walls of the bathroom. Out in the main living space, another tile motif in black, white, and gray brings a sense of geometric order to a balcony overlooking the landscape. Large glass walls and crystal-clear furniture keep the visual emphasis on the pattern and the view.

Careful editing is a big part of what makes the “Live & Fun” apartment a success. What the designers left out is just as important as what they brought in, leaving blank spaces for the eye to rest before moving on to the next chaos of color. In the hallways and living areas, smooth white surfaces are augmented by pale wood built-ins offering storage space, tables, and benches. The kitchen and dining nook are cut into two expanses of white built-in cabinetry, each one bedecked in neon colors for a striking jewel box effect. The lack of cabinet hardware helps the space feel clean and orderly.

And let’s not forget the ceilings, because the designers sure didn’t. Most noteworthy is the mirrored ceiling that visually elongates the common living spaces, augmented by lighting contained within red, green, and yellow acrylic boxes. A metallic ceiling surface perforated with thousands of tiny triangles complements the tile and doubles as a unique light source.

The post Colorful Tile Mosaics Brighten Up a Modern Chinese Apartment by 000 Design first appeared on Dornob.

China’s National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) announced that those under 18 will only be allowed to play from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, as well as public holidays. That effectively decreases children’s gaming time to just three hours most weeks, a drastic reduction from 2019’s previous restrictions of 1.5 hours on most days of the week.

The official state-run press agency quoted an unnamed NPPA spokesperson as saying the move was for the good of the Republic. “Teenagers are the future of our motherland. Protecting the physical and mental health of minors is related to the people’s vital interests and relates to the cultivation of the younger generation in the era of national rejuvenation.”

Giant tech companies like Tencent and NetEase will be closely monitored for compliance with the new regulations. Additionally, they will not be allowed to provide services to any user without real-name registrations, ensuring accurate tracking of gameplay by age. All online games will be required to have links to a state anti-addiction system, and regulators will be asking parents and teachers to participate in a campaign to prevent and fight gaming addictions in their young people.

“This ruling is the strictest one to date and will essentially wipe out most spending from minors, which we note was already extremely low,” said Daniel Ahmad, an analyst at Niko Partners.

Posts on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, were heated. Although some expressed support for the new rules, others were shocked at the severity and expressed doubts they could be adequately enforced.

“They will just use their parents’ logins, how can they control it?” asked one commenter.

Gaming companies took a hit on the stock market after the announcement, with NetEase’s shares falling 9.3 percent in New York’s pre-market trading and Tencent’s shares declining 4 percent that day.

However, the financial impacts may be minimal in the short term. “There are over 110 million minors that play video games in China today, and we expect the new limits to lead to a decline in the number of players and a reduction in the amount of time and money spent in game by those under 18,” said Niko Partners’ Ahmad. “However, we do not expect the decline in spending to have a significant material impact on the bottom line of game companies given limits on time and spending have already been in place for minors for the past two years. Therefore, we expect a softer impact on overall growth rates as spending among minors was already low.”

In the long-term, however, there may be fewer game players and a smaller market share overall in China.

Some companies, like Tencent, have preemptively been self-enforcing stricter limits in anticipation of government regulation, having recently been slapped with anti-monopoly and data protection laws.

“Since 2017, Tencent has explored and applied various new technologies and functions for the protection of minors,” the company said in an official statement. “That will continue, as Tencent strictly abides by and actively implements the latest requirements from Chinese authorities.”

Earlier in July, the Chinese state media railed against the gaming industry, calling video games “spiritual opium.” Although that portrayal was later retracted, it demonstrates the government’s intense focus on making sure its upcoming generation is productive and ready to work for the motherland.

The post Say Goodbye to Playtime, Young Chinese Gamers first appeared on Dornob.

The library is perhaps the best example of this creative design strategy. Now known as “Library in Ruins,” the space, located in Sunyao Old Village, features a new concrete form that was shaped inside the pre-existing walls, effectively reproducing the construction of the other, older buildings in the area. It also perfectly echoes many of the most distinctive features of the other buildings in the designers’ “Miniature” series.

Originally, the firm was commissioned to design one large building to house all of the municipality’s cultural amenities (like a library, cultural center, etc). However, because Xiuwu County is spread out between various far-flung villages, it’s difficult for residents to travel to a single, isolated location. The solution? Create multiple buildings with separate functions and distribute them throughout various, easily accessible locations – so people in all villages can utilize and enjoy them.

Thus the Miniature series was born. The library is just the newest of the bunch, but it’s certainly no less impressive than its forebears. Located in a previously abandoned village, it was constructed using the literal bare bones of a decaying house, cleverly incorporating the firm’s signature concrete forms into the existing structure to create something new and so much more than the sum of its parts.

As Atelier Xi explains, they created the library with “a new method to allow a new structure to grow from the old ruins.” This design strategy resulted in a space that offers the perfect blend of classic and contemporary: a new space allowed to breathe its own life while echoing many of the old building’s original distinctive features.

The firm wanted to “[allow] the new building to become a spatial device where people enter the ruins, jump over the old houses, and gaze into the village, the fields, and the mountains in the distance.” And with this amazing new library, they’ve certainly succeeded. The outside of the library perfectly complements the surrounding landscape, fluidly echoing the surrounding trees and rocky, curved terrain that are visible from its interior. This is yet another distinctive feature of buildings in the firm’s Miniature series and can be seen in the Peach Hut community pavilion, a nearby building whose structure perfectly mimics the shapes of the surrounding peach trees.

The interior also follows the same mirroring of the local landscape’s distinctive features. As Atelier Xi says, “The facade and internal spaces unfold in a topographic approach.” A new entrance created by transforming the old; an original wall that guides visitors to a new gravel garden with views of nearby cave dwellings; curving concrete surfaces within that create both drama and functional, usable space; and small cut-outs that reveal the surrounding landscape all combine to create the perfect new addition to the firm’s ongoing work.

The post Rising from the Ruins, This Rural Chinese Library by Atelier Xi Cleverly Combines the Old and New first appeared on Dornob.

“The design concept starts with the radical difference between the rural and urban interpersonal networks,” explains the Macau-based Studio A()VOID team, adding that it “reinterprets the native cave dwellings of the site as vertical ‘grottos’.” The 23-foot-tall huts are laid out irregularly on a 13-by-19-foot grid, each calculated on the length-to-width ratio of the original cave structures.

Composed of double-layered gray brick, the buildings curve organically into gentle rectangles. Individual bricks protrude asymmetrically along the outsides, too, marking the levels where scaffolding was used in the construction process.

Each pod is topped by a giant skylight, and together with the uber-tall ceilings, they encourage visitors to appreciate the verticality of the space. The access to natural light all day long also recalls the agricultural roots of Xiyaotou village. The studio says it “contextualizes residents to rurality’s rhythm of ‘working from dawn to dusk” and “exposes their sensitivity to the sun’s trajectory.”

In the winter, the double-thick walls use those sunrays to help warm the grottos from the average outside temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit. When it gets hotter in the summer, heat can escape through the pods’ strategically-placed windows, and through the chimney effect of each unit’s elongated geometry. The windows and doors of each cave structure are composed of pre-weathered steel that pushes out from the brick facade. Individual units are connected on the second story by a raised wooden walkway.

“By flowing the bridge of connectivity in between the private grottos, the design attempts to realize a community in which public and private coexist,” the studio explains, adding that “it serves as the keynote for the layout of the corridor structure and supports the new building complex in a spiritual sense.”

The bridge is held up by pine columns and snakes in between each dwelling to provide a link to all the units. The elevated sidewalk also gives walkers a birds’ eye view of the surrounding landscape, including a dense grove of trees, a nearby shoreline, and the “aboriginal architecture of Yu County.” The empty spaces below the boardwalk are designed to provide room for hosting workshops, exhibitions, and even markets.

The grotto sanctuary, completed this year under the direction of lead architect Yun Hon, was created as part of a larger Chinese initiative to rejuvenate rural “hollow” villages across the country like Xiyaotou, most of which have seen conditions deteriorate as residents have migrated to newer areas. The idea is to transform abandoned communities into destination places for tourists, with unique accommodations, local cuisines, and fun activities. Grotto Retreat Xiyaotou’s compilation of clustered units was designed to be flexible to these types of future needs and more.

Studio A( )VOID characterizes itself as a design group that “celebrates the emptiness and possibilities of a void.” They “design to allow capacities for randomness and surprises in different aspects of a project, so involved parties are encouraged to participate in this controlled mayhem.”

The post Chinese Retreat Designed to Mimic Ancient Cave Dwellings first appeared on Dornob.

Designed to help revitalize the Ba Gua Ling industrial zone at the heart of Shenzhen, the 55-story construction features a retail podium on the first few levels, with two towers that grow upward before splitting into four above a sky-park level. Calling it Shirble – The Prime (after the Chinese Department store that would be housed below), one of the building’s towers would be for offices and the other three for residential apartments.

The basic design inspiration for the high-rise was the Golden Winged Great Peng, a Chinese Buddhist eagle guardian who redeemed himself from his evil ways after listening to the Buddha’s teachings. He was then made the spiritual uncle to the Buddha and was said to have watched over all the world as he guarded the exalted throne of the great teacher.

Shenzhen’s Ba Gua Ling district used to be a hub for the printing industry but has since seen a lot of urban blight and increasing vacancy rates. By calling on the Peng imagery, Shirble – The Prime hopes to make the area prosperous and desirable place once again. The roof lines of the towers mimic the wings of the Great Peng spreading up to the sky, while the lower levels incorporate lined details reminiscent of a bird’s feathers. And with its sheer height (about 820 feet), the complex looks out over the city just like the protector eagle watching over all from the top of the world.

The new complex has been thoughtfully laid out relative to the surrounding landscapes and transportation systems, taking into account both cross-ventilation and the maximization of interior views.

The housing options include various unit sizes from large apartments to small lofts, while a “sky park” (itself situated about 500 feet above ground) provides outdoor space for walking and gathering. Also on that level will be a gym, clubhouse, sky garden, and other recreational amenities. Residents, employees, and shoppers can also find spaces to socialize in the retail podium, which will feature both indoor and outdoor common areas.

The architectural details of the structure are geometric, dissected by the more organic shape of the retail pavilion and sky park levels. The rounded rectangle balconies of the residential towers, decked out with silver-white aluminum finishes, contrast with the asymmetrical, flowing lines of the tree-topped pavilion and park.

Greenery adorns several other levels as well, providing a connection to the natural world as well as creating a little extra oxygen for the residents and employees. For its innovative design bringing so many aspects of life under one roof, Aedes won the 2020 International Property Award for Best International Residential High-Rise Architecture.

The firm was founded in 2002, with headquarters in Hong Kong and more than 1,200 employees spread among their 12 offices around the world. Their mission is to let their design practice be driven by the global sharing of research, knowledge, and practice to tailor their developments to local needs.

The post Shirble – The Prime: Proposed Shenzhen Development Would Bring Home, Work, and Shopping All Under One Roof first appeared on Dornob.

“Suddenly, I decided there should be a cloud, calmly and slowly rising over the river,” Ting says. “Clouds have a sophisticated and pure beauty.” Thus, a particularly unique bookstore was born, incorporating a series of indoor and outdoor spaces that take you on a meditative journey, clearing your mind to make way for all the written content you’re about to devour. If the layout looks familiar, that’s because it’s based on the traditional courtyard houses of China, in which the most important internal spaces are grouped pavilions looking out onto a central outdoor area.

Even as you approach from the street, the bookstore has an ethereal feel to it. The facade is a white perforated metal screen that almost blends into the sky, the entryway a cutout shaped like a cloud. Those perforations vary in size to create a layered effect that either reveals or disguises the rest of the city beyond the walls. Ting describes it as “a serene and pleasant visual subtraction” that focuses one’s gaze on the real clouds that float above the river. Trees, dark gray stepping stones, and islands of grass also punctuate the field of white.

The courtyard doesn’t just serve as a mood setter. It was also a way for Ting to to bring together the various “scattered” volumes that already existed on the site and give them a sense of flow and cohesion. One is the lifestyle book area, one is the coffeehouse, and another serves as a display for reproductions of rare books. New additions house areas like the sales kiosks and main bookstore displays. On the second floor of the coffeehouse is a future “urban parlor room,” while other upstairs spaces serve as exhibition areas. Even the rooftops are connected into a series of elevated terraces looking out onto the city, giving you a whole new level of spaces to explore. They include a children’s play platform, a “discussion terrace,” a fire pit, and a “labyrinth terrace” to sit and enjoy your coffee.

“I insist that architecture should be full of metaphors,” Ting says. “We distilled the clouds into an easy-to-read formal symbol, turning them into doorways, logos, and even UIs, while the white of the clouds covers all the background spaces of the building to reinforce the symbolic meaning in the clouds and represent the Shanghai of the clouds. The orange color extracted from Huangyan’s most famous orange not only represents the Huangyan of Duoyun, but also becomes the main color in the foreground of the entrance book and coffee area. From white clouds to orange clouds, it is easy to build a story about five-color auspicious clouds.”

Clouds and gaze-directing white screens are common motifs in Wutopia Lab’s work, and in fact, in their previous bookstore designs as well. Check out their design for the ultramodern futuristic Zhongshu bookstore in Xi’an, China and their sci-fi inspired museum full of architectural models.

The post Wutopia Lab’s Duoyun Bookstore Takes You on a Tranquil Journey Through Clouds first appeared on Dornob.