White Crane Lake Visitor Center / Archperience

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Function.The visitor center is divided into a number of clearly legible volumes, whose functions include a general reception area, restaurant, conference space, and VIP Club, among others. The reception hall is located in the southwest portion of the site to offer convenient accessibility, the restaurant occupies the northwest side which offers the best views of the landscape, the administration is in the quieter southeast corner, and the VIP Club is placed on the top floor to maximize views of the lake.Text description provided by the architects.Located adjacent toYingtanCity, Jiangxi Province, White Crane Lake covers an area of 10 square kilometers. The Visitor Center is the centerpiece of a comprehensive development initiative for White Crane Lake. The challenge for the designers was placing a stylistically modern cultural building aimed at increasing tourism, in a natural environment defined by its quiet ambiance. The project had a multitude of functional requirements to fulfill while balancing the need to elegantly coexist with a landscape of forests, mountains, and the lake itself.Whirlpool Staircase & Rooftop Pool.In the courtyard enclosed by the building volume and a series of elevated walkways, the architect has carefully placed a spiral staircase: it allows visitors to ascend to the second-floor viewing platform from ground level but also provides a strong visual focus for the courtyard space overall. Its concentric circular steps with changing radii and variegated side railing create a dynamic, complex shape that provides a creative tension with the other elements of the space. A borderless pool has been incorporated into the roof terrace on the second floor, which has been designed so that the surface of its water seems to blend with the distant blues of the lake and sky beyond when looking over and across it.Visitors walking through the forest at this time of day have the impression of simultaneously walking through trees and clouds, high in the sky. In order to reduce its intervention in the environment, the volume of the building adopts a decentralized layout, so that its overall form is divided into a series of connected volumes which effectively reduces its perceived visual scale. The building’s design also incorporates rounded forms and curves, softening its relationship with its surroundings and giving the impression of flow and movement – the project invites visitors to stroll around it in order to take in its overall design, with the views of its form and environment constantly changing with every step, unfolding like a traditional Chinese scroll painting on the lake.Design Concept.The architect’s intuition and experience came into play and a general design approach was decisively determined. Rather than overtly associating with the local residential architectural style or excessively emphasizing traditional materials and methods of construction, the new building would instead accentuate the natural qualities and atmosphere of the site of White Crane Lake itself. The Visitor Center is located on a tidal flat, surrounded by the lake on the north, south, and west sides of the site, with an extensive bamboo forest to the east. As the sun rises in the early morning, the lake is shrouded in dense clouds and mist which gently disperse themselves in the surrounding forests.Material & Skin.The Architect chose a transparent glass volume to intervene in the environment, and then introduced a second layer of "bamboo skin". The skin floats up and down around the building, like the wings of a white crane, or like a leisurely bamboo cloud on the waterfront. The continuous skin integrates separate building volumes, giving them the appearance of continuity and integration with nature. The defining line of the building’s envelope was established according to programmatic and formal considerations. Following this, secondary points along the envelope were chosen as a basis for the undulations of the skin, according to the building’s functions and the particular view of the landscape at each point – resulting in the semblance of a floating bamboo cloud from the exterior, and ensuring the best possible views from the interior public spaces.Extensive consultations regarding the building skin were made with both the client and suppliers, while significant on-site testing was also conducted in order to ensure durability and the desired visual and tactile effect. In the end, the designer finally decided to adopt a special surface-treated metal alloy, which provides a robust material with a strong resemblance to natural bamboo. Although it does not possess the tactile qualities and soft touch of natural bamboo, it was chosen for its long-term viability, ease of maintenance, and overall cost. For a modestly scaled public building, it was deemed to be the best solution by all parties involved.Conclusion.The architect took on the project with the intent of applying an approach informed by a kind of poetic imagination, ultimately arriving at the concept of "bamboo clouds on the water", allowing the new building to gently integrate with the surrounding mountains and forest, seamlessly taking its place among the natural elements of the area. The mist that rises from the lake in the early morning is transformed into an edifice that seems to hang in the air, receding into floating clouds of bamboo on the shore.The architect conducted a series of schematic explorations, looking at various potential patterns that could be incorporated. After considering horizontal and vertical grid-like versions of the skin, as well as an option of a series of interconnected pyramidal forms, a large number of computer analyses were made using Grasshopper software. In the end, the lightest option was chosen for its clear, translucent quality, and practical feasibility as a “woven” texture for the building’s skin.