Penda has set this auditorium for a Beijing art museum inside a wooden box, which features arched openings, and mirrors that reflect endless iterations of its curved cutaways. Next to it Art Auditorium, penda completed the “Hongkun Museum of Fine Arts” in 2013.
Within the box, visitors immerse into a landscape of wooden arches and circles that are mirrored on each sides and on the ceiling. Inspired by artworks of Dali and Escher, the reflective landscape creates a skewed and distorted reality and connects visitor to art in a direct and interactive way. Rather than looking at an artwork, people can experience the artwork physically to widen their imagination. The use of arches is a signature element in many of penda’s projects. The neighbouring Hongkun Museum of Fine Arts features Arches and Counter-Arches as one inviting entrance-ribbon to guide people into the Gallery. To connect the Gallery and the Auditorium, penda continued this formal expression of arches and counterarches into the auditorium. “Our love for arches as a structural element, but also as a welcoming gesture and symbol of entrance manifested itself in this project. With the reflective walls, the arches transform from a physical to a intangible element and connect with each other to one endless swing. A space that connects reality and imagination.’
Architects: penda / Photographs: Xia Zhi
Design TeamChris Precht, Dayong Sun, Jing Wang, Li Pengchong, Wen Xu, Bai Xue, Mingxue Sun