SHADOWS OF BAMBOO

Architect: Sean Godsell

Location: Nanjing, China

A 38m x 8m rectangle is embedded into the side of hill in Nanjing, China. The plan and general strategy for this building is an extension on the themes and ideas explored in the Carter / Tucker House and Peninsula House. We grappled with the concern, which shared by a kit of Architects who faced an almost identical problem to that already explored in a building, become worried that they are repeating the same design (therefore not making anything new). We found comfort in the work of Picasso and Michaelangelo who throughout their careers visited the same ideas over and over again. This notion was extended in the Peninsula House to include the roof and the difference between roof and wall in that sense was dissolved.

At Nanjing we have proposed that the skin becomes organic in the sense that it performs a further function as a solar collector. The skin of the building therefore net onlyprotects the inhabitants from the weather but also helps sustain the building. The program for this building is larger than that of the Peninsula House however the site conditions are remarkably similar and the slope on the site from front to back is almost identical. The program called for a number of self-contained bedrooms to be used by local artists and their families to use the house as a retreat. We have used the ideas of discrete space from the flinders house project to create a coded (bar code) response to this part of the brief. Each bedroom is an identical module positioned on the upper level of the building and spaced by light shafts as required for the level below. Access to this level is ‘discovered’ rather than obvious and the circulation zone (continuous around the building) is concealed. This is a deference to the planning devices used by Kazuo Shinohara in his ‘second phase’ crevice houses and the impact is to accentuate the notion of the divided plan - an eastern device. We see food as a universal language and the focus on contemporary western family life in the home is undoubtedly the kitchen, where the social event of food preparation and eating is seen as a communal activity. An informal event. The point of arrival in this building is similarly informal - at the kitchen table and the entry of lower level is prescribed as the public realm of the building. Like the Peninsula House, a Library is annexed to the main Living / Meals area to provide contrasting dark space and therefore choice within the building.

A sunken circular outdoor ‘observatory’ is accessed via the Library. As well as being a controlled outdoor living space this is a direct reference to the hillsides of Nanjing, which are dotted with observatories and astronomical centers.