O-office Architects’ Jianxiang He explains the process of design and reuse on a remarkable indoor-outdoor building, which has been shortlisted for this year’s RIBA International Prize
‘Isomorphic with the neighborhood fabric’ is how Jianxiang He, principal and partner of O-office Architects, describes his project, which creates a public exhibition from the movement of visitors while opening up public spaces. At its heart, this is an exhibition space for all sorts of photography but it draws on the site’s history. It includes industrial references to the sugar mill that went before it and uses local, reused, materials, embedding itself into this city in Guangdong Province.
The RIBA citation explains the building: ‘At the heart of the complex is a retained and refurbished warehouse, wrapped around which is a U-shaped new structure on three to five levels, the two buildings being linked by a mainly external courtyard complex which weaves around galleries and meeting places, balancing contemporary arts with local identity. The complex’s folded roof canopy is built with largely recycled local building materials and local stones, and the entire construction was completed by local workers using both modern construction and traditional craftsmanship, making this an extremely low-cost building.’
As well as referencing the city, Jianxiang linked it beyond to the landscape: ‘The museum hidden in the old city recombines the mottled roof skyline of the old city and the cascading mountains and rivers in the distance,’ he says.
Can you outline the design process for this project?
Lianzhou International Foto Festival (LIFF) is known as China’s best photographic festival and has been held for more than 15 years. It includes exhibitions in different forms such as photography, contemporary art, video, installation, and academic seminars on sociology, anthropology, art and other disciplines. The exhibitions and activities of the annual event had been held in vacant industrial and agricultural spaces around the old city of Lianzhou.
During the eighth LIFF in 2013, the Lianzhou Municipal Government decided to build a permanent photography museum, which was also China’s first professional photography museum at that time. In 2014, my practice was invited by Duan Yuting, the chief curator of the LIFF, and François Cheval, the French co-curator, to start the design work of the museum. O-office and the curator jointly participated in the site selection of the museum and decided to locate the museum at the old sugar mill site in the centre of the old city.
Construction started in 2015 with a one-year interruption due to the change of government leaders. It was finally completed in December 2017 and put into use as the main exhibition venue of LIFF that year. The buidling was quickly noticed by various architectural and art media, greatly increasing the popularity of Lianzhou city. In the following two LIFFs in 2018 and 2019, it continued to attract wider public and media attention. The photography festival and exhibition were then suspended for three years due to the epidemic but were restarted for the 14th LIFF in the winter of 2023.
What were the main architectural priorities?
Our main architectural priority was to build a contemporary art institution firmly rooted in the local. We wanted it to maintain the spirit, the significance and the attractiveness of the combination of art and locality, of LIFF.
Our first concept already positioned the museum as an urban courtyard house growing in the context of the old city, accommodating contemporary arts while offering local residents new public spaces belonging to the old city. To achieve this, we gave up the conventional white box model of contemporary art spaces, trying to break the whole into parts, and dispersing the 2,000m2 of exhibition space into multiple exhibition rooms of different sizes and scales. We composed the museum as a three-dimensional settlement in the old city, isomorphic with the neighbourhood fabric, and creating open public spaces. I had a long and difficult discussion with the curators regarding this model but finally got their support.
The new spatial model creates an extremely rich and multifaceted spatial experience. The gesture of opening to the old city – plus the use of recycled building materials– integrates the museum into the surrounding neighbourhood. Citizens can freely walk through or rest within the public complex, including the museum’s roof. The museum realises the seamless bond between avant-garde contemporary arts and the local tradition of the city.
What was the most challenging aspect?
The most challenging aspect came from the limited budget versus the high expectations of both the curation team and the local authority. We met this challenge directly with three design and processing strategies.
Firstly, we kept and reused part of the original factory to lower the new-built volume. Furthermore, materials obtained from the demolished building were recycled for the new building parts, reducing the construction cost. This strategy also helped to solve the problem of the building’s ageing and maintenance cost in use.
Secondly, the design embraced simple structural construction and local craftsmanship. The entire construction was fully executed by local contractors and workers.
Thirdly, the museum was perceived from the start as local architecture that aligned with the climate and urban tradition. The building maximised the area of outdoor spaces and minimised air-conditioned areas. Through these strategies, the museum achieved a very low construction and maintenance cost, compared with similar buildings in China.
Which part of the project has been most successful?
The most successful part of the building should be its public spaces. We combined the daily life of the old city with the ritual of art into a new spatial narrative. The whole ground level is dedicated to local street life, the three entrances making it part of the neighbourhood. Through the spatial organisation of entering, turning and combining, the most contemporary photographic art is blended into the background of Lianzhou old city.
The event nature of the building is unfolded in a continuous process. The ritual exhibition line route and daily activities are intertwined. There are ramps, stairs and corridors with strong guidance. There are squares, rest platforms and rooftop theatres where people can stroll. These architectural elements guide, isolate, accommodate and turn for the viewers who walk in them, creating a lively and quiet, bright and dim, open and closed space, so that various ritual or daily activities can take place in between. The open-air small theatre on the roof connects the museum’s new and old buildings and is the climax of the entire exhibition flow.
The museum combines the old city’s mottled roof skyline with the cascading mountains and rivers in the distance. In the process of appreciating contemporary art, people are interspersed with scenes of daily life in the old city. Unique perspectives constantly appear for people walking or stopping, turning or branching, just like a montage in a movie. Both visitors and locals can always find the museum as their public house even when there is no exhibition. The museum has now become one of the favourite places for the locals, like their old street and marketplace.
As told to Eleanor Young
Lianzhou Museum of Photography has been shortlisted for this year’s RIBA International Prize along with Modulus Matrix by Peris + Toral Arquitectes and Jacoby Studios by David Chipperfield Architects. The winner will be announced on 27 November 2024