ZAO / Zhang Ke Architecture Office

The city of Rizhao is located on the sunny coast of the Yellow Sea in the Province of Shandong. The Art Center provides a cultural center for the local community as part of a new public infrastructure in a resort with other public buildings and residential districts.

The ensemble is embedded in a hilly landscape with a small lake and makes reference to it with its curved form. The construction system consists of a curved mesh of concrete beams that support the upper part of the building on three corners. The upper story is closed to the outside and forms a labyrinthine interior landscape along with trapezoidal courtyards and spaces. The accessible roof provides a view of the landscape.

The three-dimensionally shaped ground floor opens up to all sides with lenticular cut-outs. The sculptural space is also used for film or theatre presentations. Exhibition spaces that are delimited from one another by structurally necessary building elements are located on the underground level.

The interleaving of open and closed spaces and the concentration that result from the delimiting and opening-up of perspectives give rise to a fascinating composition between architecture and landscape.