The commission was challenging, creating a 900m² exhibition hall in a historical building in the historical area of Hunan university. It is a dorm built in 1930s by the first Chinese modernism architect: Liu Shiying.
The problem was not working out a nice way to cope with local delicate context, but should we introduce any thing as big as 900m² HERE at all? Even if we poor students have no choice but do whatever professor asked, can we do it as little aggressive as possible?
The reason is simple: although we were supposed to practise what we had learnt about large span structure, we just couldn’t ignore the beauty and the services the dorm provides us everyday, neither its historical value or what does it mean to local community. We don’t see practising large span structure as insignificant, however, a design where one can find truth and goodness is larger than that.
Hopefully, the invisible 900m² could be one of the kind.
