jingxiang zhu: dou pavilion venice biennale

jingxiang zhu transports checkered playroom pavilion from china to venice biennale

venice architecture biennale: outside on the grounds of the arsenale, the people’s republic of china presents ‘daily design, daily tao’. the title demonstrates the ‘other side’ to the increasing urban and industrial modernization of china in the last decades and explores design and architecture which re-elaborate the country’s three-thousand-year old cultural heritage into contemporary forms.

image © designboom

one of the structures constructed with this theme is ‘pavilion dou’ by hong kong-based architect jingxiang zhu. the prefabricated volume is described as a ‘checkered playroom’ for a kindergarten to be based in a remote region of western china. developed alongside unitinno and chinese university of hong kong led by jingxiang zhu, the OSB wood pavilion can be assembled and taken apart easily and adapt to different uses. ten of the pavilions were put together in different villages in china’s gansu province; these buildings composed of concave and convex squares are reminiscent to the traditional chinese pecker measuring tool. with this, the openings can be stacked on different levels and open at different directions to encourage children and other users to spatially explore the space.

the prefabricated volume is described as a ‘checkered playroom’
image © designboom

every element in the design – walls, floor, ceiling, seating areas – is based on the same square module
image © designboom

the structural framework is composed of thin elements in timber, connected by a standardized set of threaded steel
bars and nuts
image © designboom

the pavilion is a light-weight modular building, made with OSB wood panels
image © designboom

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jingxiang zhu transports checkered playroom pavilion from china to venice biennale

venice architecture biennale 2016 (75)

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