Shadow Volume

BAI TA SI RENEWAL COMPETITION
in collaboration with Yan Ma

Shadow walls refer to the screens that shield the entrance in traditional Beijing courtyard houses. As an important architectural element that greets people at door, functionally it separates private and public, diverts circulation while allowing natural lights and ventilation; figuratively often times it bears blissful meanings with delicate arts and decorations.

By reinventing shadow walls into shadow volumes, the inflated walls engulf the decor inwards to function as exhibition spaces, while making it porous and transparent to make the arts visible. While being redefined, the shadow volumes retain the features of walls as they remain un-occupiable, separate the program and divert the flow three dimensionally.

The insertions of shadow volumes right next to the entrances offset the existing volumes to make way for circulation, creating a journey around the visual axis established by the alternating shadow volumes and the existing circulatory spaces. The juxtaposition of the shadow volumes and the existing ones with circulation in between is also a diagram for the viewer and exhibition relationship: the shadow volumes being primarily exhibition programs being viewed, the existing residential but flexible and circulation space for most activities.

The modern twist of a classic concept has reasserted the traditional courtyard house identity, yet unconventionally so.