Life abstracted – exhibition centre with a bold premise

The dramatic OCT Exhibition Centre by Lacime Architects takes the bold architectural move of evoking scenes of local area life in abstracted concrete form

Entry approach between two reflection ponds.

The building is finished in a clear paint

The building also has a strong visual (as

The abstracted still life scenes becomes the scenery

The design interprets the local traditional environment of

The architects liken the experience of visiting the

The exhibition centre looks dramatic from all angles

At night, lighting reinforces the building's structural gymnastics.

Designed by Lacime Architects

The project site is located on the east side of Baota Road in Lishui District, Nanjing city, and on the north bank of Yigan River (one of the headwaters of Qinhuai River), enjoying excellent surrounding natural environment.

The whole surrounding area will be planned as a characteristic cultural travel centre of Nanjing.

As the first project of the whole planning and exhibition area, this building undertakes the important task of showcasing the regional planning, and at the same time, it should meet the requirements of the functional transformation of the community in the future.

In the initial stage of the project, the architecture explores the daily life scenes of Lishui people in abstract.

Scenes depicted include: a lantern show under the Yongshou Temple Pagoda; four generations living together in a courtyard; dwellings on the banks of Yigan River; and the hustle and bustle of city streets.

In the new urban construction, the architects seek to reproduce Lishui people's memories of life scenes in the form of spatial deduction, and demonstrate expectations for Lishui's future urban space.

The design extracts the local traditional environment of Lishui as the aesthetic prototype.

Yongshou Temple Pagoda, courtyards, Yigan canal and Jiangnan streets and alleys are abstracted as magnified geometric still life, and form a semantic superimposed landscape through spatial combination.

Familiar objects reappear in unfamiliar forms, triggering associations with scenes in people's memories.

The architects' ingenious layout makes the abstract geometric still life present a specific spatial structure and focus on the interior, and this aesthetic of composition reveals a miniature landscape.

The spectator's global perspective intervenes in the geometric still life with a local thinking.

The magnified still life becomes the scenery in the environment, and the space formed between the still life becomes the tunnel for people to travel in the landscape.

The facade of the building is made of fair-faced concrete to accentuate and express the geometric volume of the building.

In consideration of the overall construction process and project schedule, partial structure adopts cast-in-place, while the rest uses dry-hung concrete fiberboard and corner GRC.

Finally, the entire facade was coated with clear concrete paint twice to simulate the effect of bare concrete, and the clear paint also unifies the texture of the building materials.

In the end, the entire exhibition centre stands as a powerful sculptural geometric volume on the banks of Yigan River, just like a giant ship that has completed its voyage and is quietly moored in the harbour.