Shui Cultural Center

Description

Located in the Southern Guizhou Province, the cultural center is a gateway to the land of the Shui. They are one of the ethnic minority groups in China who still retain their language and unique system of pictographs. With this project, West-line Studio aims to evoke the Shui’s ancient culture using particular materials – bronze and concrete with a wooden pattern – but also by recreating a holy space, able to submerge the visitor who is guided on a journey through the Shui’s ancestral world.

Statement of the jury

The cultural centre’s architecture was cleverly derived from the characters of the original Shui alphabet. For example, the distinctive shape of the three structures was inspired by the character for »mountains« – three triangles in a row. The use of bronze and the wood panelling covering the concrete corpus are also a reference to the tradition and culture of this ethnic minority.