Gad, an architectural studio based in China, created and designed an exhibition center for a traditional Chinese wine, boasting of an impressive bamboo grid facade. The Shaoxing Rice Wine Town Reception Room was built in Dongpu, Zhejiang province, where the yellow rice wine came from.
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Gad chose the location because it was still relatively underdeveloped. The building will be an “exhibition and experience hall” for the Shaoxing rice wine with future plans of leasing it for commercial use, particularly for three restaurants. Currently, there is already a bookstore and a flower shop in operation.
The architects also wanted for the layout to be adaptable and changed easily. While it would make sense to create a wooden structure from bamboo, Gad eventually went for steel to promote sustainability and make it climate-proof, due to the region being prone to rain.
The bamboo planks were pre-processed into L-shaped members in the factory, which reduced the on-site assembling workload and joint treatment, and improves the construction speed and the accuracy of on-site installation, according to the architects of Gad.
The three-storey building thrived on its waterside setting, as it is located next to the Dashu River, in Zhejiang province. Steel materials are framed by lengths of bamboo, as they extend to the building’s facade. At ground level, there is a sheltered seating area for visitors so they could have a place to rest. Partitions walls are formed of grid bookshelves, while display stands feature wooden lattices. Another frame is added to the outer wall of the building to allow the interior solid space to retreat and form a deep and layered facade. The awning, inspired from the removable windows of Jiangnan folk houses, emphasizes the depth and layers of the facade even more.
“The project is an experiment in modular design and construction,” the Gad architects explained. “It responds to complex functional construction demands with a unified modular design language, infusing the vitality of the times into the thousand-year-old ancient town. The site is surrounded by dense water network. In ancient times, it was the waterway of Shaoxing Grain transport, facing the Dashu River in the east, with good landscape conditions.”
Photography by Yaoli Studio
