A CONCRETE BUILDING AS A LANDMARK IN THE SURROUNDING CONTEXT
Aranya Art Center in Qinhuangdao, China
Neri & Hu Design and Research Office
The Aranya Art Center is a small cultural center, which is part of a valuable tourist complex in Qinhuangdao, a summer resort in China. One of the main design intentions has been the construction of a participatory place; hence, the Aranya Art Center results to be not only an artistic venue but also a functional center for urban activities, as it hides a sort of public square. Indeed, the building has two faces: its exterior displays compactness, while its interior is an almost symbolic space. Its austere building body made up of a dense texture of cement blocks, interrupted only by large, galvanized steel windows with bronze finishing, contains a round-plan, roofless amphitheater on the underground floor, whose vertical development forms an inverted truncated cone, a wide central cavea that can be allocated for several uses: exhibition space, public venue, rainwater reservoir.
