Loop of Wisdom Museum & Reception Center / Powerhouse Company

Curated by Paula Pintos
MUSEUM • CHENGDU, CHINA
Architects : Powerhouse Company
Area : 5000 m²
Year : 2020
Photographs : Jonathan Leijonhufvud Architectural Photography
Partners In Charge : Stijn Kemper, Nanne de Ru
Project Lead : Niels Baljet
Project Team : Rui Wang, Albert Takashi Richters, Maarten Diederix, Meagan Kerr, Remko van der Vorm, Daan Masmeijer, Michiel Bosch, Niek Koning, Stavros Voskaris, Filip Galić, Severino Iritano, Davide del Sante, Reto Egli, Penny Uni, Dries Brøns, Caroline Desplan, Eli Keijser, Gert Ververs, Giovanni Andrea Coni, Rafael Zarza Garciá, Yanni Huang, Kimi Fei
Co Architect : Chengdu JZFZ Architectural Design Co.Ltd.
Landscape Architects : AECOM, Wisto
Interior Architects : CCD, Xenario
Urban Planners : Woods Bagot
Mep Consultant : Chengdu JZFZ Architectural Design Co.Ltd.
Structural Engineer : Chengdu JZFZ Architectural Design Co.Ltd.
Facade Engineer : Chengdu JZFZ Architectural Design Co.Ltd.
Lighting Advisor : Minka
Contractor : CSCEC, Kelida
Visualizations : Mir., ATCHAIN
City : Chengdu
Country : China

Textual content description supplied by the architects. Dwelling as much as the suggestiveness of its title, the Loop of Knowledge embodies a timeless architectural idea. Powerhouse Firm’s design for a know-how museum and reception middle for a brand new neighborhood in Chengdu, China, is rather more than an exuberant landmark. Along with its apparent aesthetic enchantment and cultural program, the fluid-structure incorporates a spectacular public area – an undulating rooftop path. This addition makes the Loop of Knowledge an accessible icon, fairly than a distant beacon. It invitations individuals to discover it and make it a part of their common strolling or jogging routine.

Designed as a steady ring, the loop’s kind is archetypal and common; natural and geometric; enigmatic but immediately recognizable. Whereas the consumer initially needed a short lived building, they had been so impressed by the standard of the design, its delicate relationship with the panorama, and its elegant strains, that they determined it should develop into a everlasting fixture. The Loop of Knowledge’s design remodeled the thought for an ephemeral structure right into a imaginative and prescient of a long-lived and inherently sustainable one.

Placing a hoop on it. The consumer, chip producer, and actual property specialist Uni-Hiku requested Powerhouse Firm to design the museum and reception middle as a part of its new improvement, Unis Chip Metropolis, within the vibrant metropolis of Chengdu. The brand new buildings would additionally operate as a know-how training middle in addition to an info middle for the brand new metropolis improvement.

In the course of the web site go to, the architects observed the pure undulation within the terrain, a really delicate and tender hill. Usually in Chinese language improvement, these pure hills are leveled. Powerhouse Firm determined as a substitute to make use of the topography as the premise for a singular design that might convey an natural softness to the city atmosphere. By shaping a round path that follows the topography, the 2 separate programmatic entities are mixed in a single single structure. As the trail rises up to create space for this system, it turns into a roof providing gorgeous views over the brand new improvement. The brand new building turns into a path and architecture on the similar time whereas permitting nature to proceed round, underneath, and throughout the type of the structure.

The Loop of Knowledge’s flowing, natural kind echoes the mountain ring circling its location on the Chengdu Plain. Embedded into the panorama, the building is accessible and public, a spot for individuals to stroll, run, or just admire the views. The Möbius-like kind alludes to human ingenuity and the high-tech credentials of the Unis Group, as does the prime quality of the building and the cutting-edge know-how used to design and construct it.

The pink street. The rooftop walkway measures 698 meters round, rising 25 meters from its ground-level entry to supply spectacular views of the encircling greenery and distant mountains. Its floor is rubber asphalt – the fabric used for athletics tracks – making the trail appropriate for runners in addition to walkers. Pink was chosen for the colour for the roof due to the placing distinction it makes with the luxurious inexperienced of the panorama.

Above the observe, the rooftop floor consists of customized aluminium tiles. 15,218 of those, every with its personal distinctive profile and numeric code, kind a seamless pores and skin for the serpentine form. The LED lights that illuminate the building at evening and practical parts together with gutters and handrails are all fastidiously hid from sight, ensuing within the streamlined profile that enhances the loop’s elegant simplicity and flowing strains.

Beneath the pink roof, the exhibition areas have a heat, pure environment, created by wood ceilings and open views of the encircling panorama. The facades are structurally glazed to a peak of 13 meters with glass reinforcement fins. This transparency blurs the boundary between indoors and outdoor, once more enhancing the reference to nature.

A daring new landmark. Situated within the Tianfu New District of Chengdu in Sichuan, Unis Chip Metropolis is considered one of a number of developments arising alongside the Tianfu Avenue. Located subsequent to this main artery, the Loop of Knowledge instructions consideration with its flowing kind and vibrant pink coloration. At evening, LED lighting transforms it right into a glowing sculpture. As the primary accomplished building within the new improvement, it acts as a symbolic landmark for the long run neighborhood and as a magnet for attracting future residents.

Along with designing the Loop of Knowledge, Powerhouse Firm acted as a guide for the event, which incorporates residential buildings, places of work, procuring malls, and colleges. The architects additionally designed different parts of the plan, together with mixed-use places of work which might be at present underneath development.

The quick observe to the long run. All the Loop of Knowledge building, together with the interior design and panorama design, was constructed with true Chinese language rapidity: It took underneath a yr to finish from design to development. The design itself went from sketch to blueprint in a matter of days, due to the usage of superior parametric drafting software program that was linked to the architects’ BIM mannequin. The six-hour time distinction between Powerhouse Firm’s head workplace in Rotterdam and the positioning in China allowed for environment friendly communication, with each events touching base initially and finish of their respective days.

Ultimately, a brand new college might be constructed subsequent to the positioning of the Loop of Knowledge. The building will enter its second section of life as a library and sports activities middle, full with an Olympic-sized operating observe, sustaining its focal position in the neighborhood. This built-in longevity makes the building inherently sustainable.

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