Beijing, China
Beijing-based architecture firm PINES ARCH has created an experimental space for events and exhibitions, which features sinuous elements and undulating surfaces within a sublime white environment.
2022 Golong Wormhole, as this project is named, is located at the Golong Holdings headquarter building in Hangzhou, China.
The space mimics a wormhole layered with paper cuts providing an alluring space for flexible programming.
“The interior maintains a consistent visual language that represents the inquisitive and transformative brand culture of Golong, a beauty, and wellness conglomerate,” states Pines Arch’s team.
The wormhole is situated on one side of a rectangular general layout. The wormhole itself acts as a sculptural work in the center.
While the first floor includes spacetime tunnels, display window, utility, control room, storage ad restroom, the second floor is dedicated to a restroom, wormhole, meeting room, office space, pantry, and multi-use space.
Conceived as an immersive space tying all exhibition spaces, the wormhole structure is the focal point of the exhibition.
“As the only part of the exhibition space that is not rectilinear, the sinuous elements extend and undulate from the foot of the shell-like installation to the very top, blurring the traditional definitions of what constitutes a room,” says PINES ARCH.
“The space is imbued with motion and speed, possibly submerging some unseemly visitors in an uneasy sensation that challenges the known and unknown about wormholes in our galaxy.”
The sculptural shape of the wormhole encompasses the viewer, enhancing their awareness and provoking their senses about light, form, and scale.
The space invites the visitor to be suspended in a reality in which the viewer takes on the role of an intrusive explorer, actively trying to measure and to interpret.
During events, the space can allow seats up to 60 people on the steps. On days without events, the wormhole is a space where employees would come to contemplate and unwind.
To construct the wormhole, the studio devised a structural frame made of galvanized steel studs that are welded on-site after the studio defined the layout precisely by projecting curves onto a grid.
PINES ARCH has used fiber-cement backer board to line the frame, and installed precast GRC panels made specifically for each curvature.
On both ends of the central wormhole, the space features gallery spaces for agile programming needs.
Unlike the wormhole, the galleries act as an anchor to the familiar, layering the latent and the seemingly banal.
The grid present in the coffered ceiling is symbolic of shared consciousness.
The walls of the galleries are plastered by hand, whereas the floors are made of polished epoxy.
The rotating partition in the west gallery is used to configure spatial divisions, creating changing boundaries based on programming needs and occasions.
The rotating partition is equipped with electrical sockets and a hidden water inlet to function as a bar or a coffee stand during events.
The architects made it possible for the gallery spaces to be subdivided by automatic glass partitions that are hidden in a pocket wall.
The pocket wall is built to be a half wall, so the coffered ceiling is allowed to extend beyond.
As stated byPINES ARCH, the interior space also include three freestanding tunnels that exist within the “in-between” realms.
These tunnels, which can be seen in the floor plans, separate the wormhole and the galleries, hovering slightly above the ground.
According to the studio, “the tunnels act like conveyor belts, linearly transporting those who travel through it.”
“In 2022: Golong Wormhole, the spaces are intentionally created to “contain” a blank slate, in which any human presence or activity would colonize the spaces and create contexts of its own,” continue the architects.
Project: 2022 Golong Wormhole
Architects: PINES ARCH
Designer Team: Evelyn Jingjie Wong, Shuni Wu, Jiawen Song, and Ninghui Wang
Directors: Evelyn Jingjie Wong and Shuni Wu
Client: Golong Holdings
Photographers: BreezeImage-Guozhe
