Manager Pavilion Jinhua China

The project emerged from a commission for artist Ai Weiwei to erect a monument at the river in Jinhua in honor of his father who was born in the town. Further commissions resulted, including the planning of a several-kilometer-long ribbon of land along the river unsuitable for residential buildings due to flood danger. The building site is in a new development area on the outskirts of the quickly growing metropolis. A landscape park occupied by a number of freely placed follies rises above the site, which should become an architecture park. Ai Weiwei’s concept paired Chinese artists and architects together with a selection of young architectural firms from around the world. Each team designed a pavilion. Location and use concept were pre-determined, and distributed in a lottery. For the development of the park manager’s pavilion, other than rough figures on size and overall dimensions, the layout in terms of content was left up to the architects. 

The commission’s directness led to a contextual approach via interpretation of a traditional building principle: the Chinese courtyard house, which is defined by layers of increasingly private spaces. Through a similar, introverted nature, the pavilion withdraws from immediate interpretation. Two typological principles are at the concept’s base: an orthogonal masonry framework surrounds three courtyard spaces. The polygonal structure inserted within has an equal number of spatial zones. This results in a publicly accessible area and also a working and living area, each with a garden out front. The structural principles can be read on the fifth facade, the roof, which is visible from the nearby bridge.

In the interior, the free, polygonal structure appears as a type of box ceiling. Its reversal results in drainage channels on the roof. Floor-to-ceiling wood elements furnished with hinges are placed directly in the framework of the structural openings. Window and door casements have the same magnitude as the walls. The plan is to cast the entire structure in a light concrete, cover the courtyard with light gravel, and plant red, black, and green bamboo. For cost reasons, the walls are made only as a structural framework in concrete, and then filled in. Finally, the entire construction will be plastered smooth. The budget does, however, permit production of the window frames in nut wood.