"At a bend along the mountain road in Jiuxian, China, the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Art Museum by Kong Xiangwei Studio occupies a narrow site shaded by oaks. The building marks the entrance to the Xi Valley Scenic Area's forest art initiative - an open-air museum that threads artworks through the woods. Modest in scale yet deeply connected to its surroundings, the structure serves as both gallery and gateway, its form revealing itself gradually to those who arrive on foot."
"From the road, the building appears as a folded concrete shell drawn inward by concave surfaces. Narrow openings along the base allow light to seep in and out, hinting at the valley beyond. Entering feels like passing through a small mountain opening into another realm, echoing the vision described in Tao Yuanming's The Peach Blossom Spring. Inside, filtered light, the scent of oak, and the sound of wind combine to produce a calm, transitional atmosphere as a prelude to the larger landscape."
"Kong Xiangwei Studio's practice often favors 'local construction,' a method grounded in collaboration and site responsiveness which can be seen through this art museum. Here, the process began not with finalized drawings but with an open-ended experiment in form. The architect and his team used twelve-millimeter deformed steel bars as the framework, which are flexible enough to be bent and bound by hand, yet strong enough to define space."
The museum sits on a narrow, oak-shaded site at a bend on the Jiuxian mountain road and marks the entrance to the Xi Valley Scenic Area's forest art initiative. The exterior reads as a folded concrete shell with concave surfaces and narrow base openings that modulate light and hint at the valley beyond. Movement through the building evokes passing into another realm, with filtered light, oak scent, and wind creating a calm transitional atmosphere. The project employed a local construction approach using flexible twelve-millimeter deformed steel bars shaped by the architect and three villagers, revealing form through hands-on experimentation and discovery.
Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine
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