Changning, Yi Bin, China
Chengdu-based Archermit’s architectural team remodels two old traditional houses in southern Sichuan converting them into Bamboo Branch Academy, a cultural building and meditation center with multi-functional outdoor spaces.
The design has been awarded a 2021 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The project is located in Changning, Yi bin. It has a famous scenic spot named Southern Sichuan Bamboo Sea, the largest natural bamboo forest in the world, one of the ten most beautiful forests in China.
Bamboo Branch Ci, the name of Yuefu Jindaiqu, an ancient song in China, evolved from the folk songs of Chongqing.
Liu Yuxi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, changed it into a new poem, chanting Festival scenery and folk customs as its main features, which greatly influenced later Chinese poets.
Bamboo is the incarnation of a gentleman in Chinese culture.
The character of straightforward, indomitable, and open-minded bamboo has become an important spiritual and cultural symbol of ancient Chinese poets.
Bamboo branch is not only an important component of bamboo but also an indispensable part of traditional Chinese literature.
The concrete and abstract connotations of bamboo branches coincide with the three functions of the bamboo culture to be displayed in the project, namely, meditation, music hall, and academy.
It’s where the ‘Bamboo Branch Academy’ came from.
Repair the old as the old, renew the new on the basis of the originally residential land; thus, local residential building materials (gray tiles, timber, bamboo, etc.) are used to create a new local architectural image.
Blending into nature, taking the surrounding hilly skyline as a reference, the buildings fluctuate with the trend and integrate into the bamboo forest.
The surrounding farmland is the most important characteristic landscape.
The scope is to maintain the original state of the village to the maximum extent.
Project: Bamboo Branch Academy
Architects: Archermit
Design Team: Youcai Pan, Zhe Yang, Zihan Li, Qinmei Hu, Shuhua Ye, Yi He, Yuanjun Gou, Xiangxin Ge, Rui Yang, Guisheng Liang, Qian Wang, Gang Li, and Wei Zhang
Structural Engineer: Xu Du
Client: Sichuan Zhongrui Jinye Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd
General Contractor: Sichuan Zhongrui Jinye Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd
Photographers: Arch-exist Photography
