Fu Jian, China
The Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Centre in Fu Jian, commissioned by Fuzhou New Area Development & Investment Group and designed by Helsinki and Shanghai-based studio, PES-Architects with China Construction Engineering Design Group, takes its form from the jasmine flower for both an inspired and innovative design.
For its inspired and comprehensive design, the Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Centre has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Its design is an innovative expression of Chinese traditional culture and is inspired by the jasmine flower, a well-known symbol of Chinese culture, as well as the city flower of Fuzhou.
Five main buildings (opera house, concert hall, multi-functional theatre, art exhibition hall, and cinema) constitute five white jasmine petals, through which runs the Liangcuo River like a flower stalk.
Several small petals make up a platform that goes deep into the Minjiang River and the five main builds are linked by a cultural concourse and a large roof terrace.
Together, they build up a magnificent Chinese picture featuring blossoming jasmine flowers over a moonlit river.
The roof terrace is accessible via two ramps from the Jasmine Gardens as well as from the Central Jasmine Plaza, providing a seamless connection from the complex to the riverfront of the Minjiang River.
On the underground level, a promenade-like route along the Liangcuo flood river connects the landscape to the interiors and provides a connection between the metro station and the center.
The center was built with traditional materials of Chinese ceramics and bamboo, both with symbolic character beyond their material features.
Ceramics originated in China, and bamboo is the symbol of the Chinese spirit and endowment.
Additionally, Fujian is one of the producing areas of ceramics and bamboo, saving production and transportation costs.
The interior design adopts bamboo and art ceramics, whose patterns are derived from those of jasmine and peony twigs on ceramics dating from the Yuan Dynasty.
More than 1.5 million ceramic pieces of “peony twigs” patterns, rooted in a standard hexagon, are “blooming” on the walls of the opera house.
PES-Architects worked with Taiwanese ceramic artist Samuel Hsuan-yu Shih to design the artistic ceramic interior for two main auditoriums according to acoustical demands.
All façades are clad with white ceramic tiles and louvres, while both the opera hall and concert hall showcase this cultural material in innovative and creative ways in the acoustic wall surface.
The concert hall is composed of 25,000 pieces of white art ceramics, which are integrated into the standard dimension of 555 millimetre, equilateral triangles, building up the oriental hall like “wrinkles of traditional Chinese rice paper.”
Based on extensive studies carried out with the acousticians, two types of acoustic panels were developed: an engraved panel and a mosaic tile panel.
Both panels are adaptable to the topographical surfaces that are required to achieve high quality acoustics, as well as the visual language of the design.
Project: Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Centre
Architects: PES-Architects Ltd.
Architects of Record: China Construction Engineering Design Group Co., Ltd.
Design Team: Pekka Salminen, Xu Zongwu, YueXing Tang, Martin Lukasczyk, YuHui Song, YueXing Tang, WeiXing Dong, ZongRui Chen, and LinLi Lai
General Contractor: China Construction Engineering Design Group Co., Ltd.
Client: Fuzhou New Area Development & Investment Group Co., Ltd.
Photographers: Marc Goodwin, Yong Zhang, and Virgile Bertrand
