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The ease of excellence

Atelier Archmixing

The ease of excellence
By Li Xiangning -

Shen Zhuang, Design Director of Atelier Archmixing, is perhaps the one of the best architects in the world with an ability to make simple work of a difficult brief. Many years ago, he once talked with me about the consumer society and his own focus on the distinction between superficial and deeply rooted cultural attitudes. On reflection, this is probably the way Shen Zhuang and his co-workers succeed in penetrating the intimate logical relationship between surface and architecture, come to grip with all aspects of their brief, i.e. site, space, surface, and understand the function of architecture in a given context. Shen Zhuang’s work spans many different scales. His approach to large-scale architecture, although wide and varied, smacks of the same approach reserved to small buildings and installations. His work resembles color sketches from nature, often using colors in different small blocks to balance the shades of sky and trees, light and shadow that form an overall picture. By the same token, a building, however large, can always be divided into segments or a series of small architectures. The Chen Huacheng Memorial art museum maintains the underlying character of an historical Chinese building. Archmixing’s strategy was to maintain the reference to the original structure, adding steel and timber elements in keeping with the former building. The frame joints of the outer coverage passageway – whose clean simple line creates a rhythmic alternation of light and shadow - reference the traditional mortise and tenon construction. The courtyard space enclosed by this external corridor creates an appropriate transitional space between the old building and the new site, at the same time ensuring a private, quiet atmosphere from which to observe the original building. The façade renovation of Building 8 at 890 Hengshan Road in Shanghai is located in a commercial district. In the renovated façade, illuminated bricks, the same size as...

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