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Research : The Xinxiang Cultural Tourism Center

The Xinxiang Cultural Tourism Center has been designed by Mathieu Forest Architecte and Zone Of Utopia. It is a unique architectural building focusing on winter sports and featuring an indoor ski slope (Astbury, 2022).


Xinxiang Cultural Tourism Center

The centre has a rather distinctive Sculpture because instead of a traditional building, it takes the form of a large sculpture resembling nine stacked and offset ice cubes. Its simple appearance has hidden details which can been seen upon closer examination.


The glass facades are textured with translucent ice crystals which filters light and views from inside. This give the building a charming effect which attracts visitors to explore further.

The building combines fragility and strength. Despite its imposing look, it is made entirely of printed glass and steel. The glass panels are suspended by stainless steel cables with minimal connections, balancing fragility and strength (Astbury, 2022).



The building's appearance changes depending on how it's viewed, with each angle offering a different perspective. The upper cube juts out from the commercial street, creating a cantilevered effect, while from the north, it forms a vertical gap that invites visitors inside (ArchDaily, 2021). PROL uses light and shadow in a way to consider how different lights can be arranged and combined. This allows the designer to transform the appearance of the ice box during the day and create a magical, fairy-tale atmosphere at night. The lighting design is based on the building's intuitive characteristics and its relationship with light, aiming to highlight the shape of large ice cubes (Ibrahim, 2022) .


Xinxiang Cultural Tourism Center

This research has given me insights that have got me thinking more deeply about how I can approach the design of my own project. I should pay closer attention to the texture, appearance, and overall appeal of the facade of my design. 

Reference

ArchDaily (2021). Ice Cubes Cultural Tourist Center / Zone of Utopia + Mathieu Forest Architecte. [online] ArchDaily. Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/972937/ice-cubes-cultural-tourist-center-zone-of-utopia-plus-mathieu-forest-architecte?ad_medium=gallery [Accessed 11 May 2024].

Astbury, J. (2022). Xinxiang Cultural Tourism Centre in China resembles a stack of ice cubes. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2022/03/10/xinxiang-cultural-tourism-centre-mathieu-forest-architecte-glass-cubes-china/ [Accessed 11 May 2024].

Ibrahim, N.N. (2022). Xinxiang Cultural Tourism Center, lighting by PROL. [online] AmazingArchitecture. Available at: https://amazingarchitecture.com/cultural-center/xinxiang-cultural-tourism-center-lighting-by-prol [Accessed 11 May 2024].

Comments

  1. Sam Dargan14 May 2024 at 04:39

    It would be nice to see you relate your research to your project idea in some way throughout the post instead of a just a brief line at the end of the post.

    You are using Quillbot again by the looks of it and after what happened at the end of last term! You don't need to do this, you are more than capable of writing in your own words. Please re-write.

    ReplyDelete

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