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Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

Pleated shutters enclose cylindrical enamelware museum and cultural centre by Wutopia Lab

Perforated-aluminium screens zigzag around the walls of this cylindrical arts museum in Shanghai, which was designed by Wutopia Lab and features a 1970s-style rockery. 

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

Local architecture studio Wutopia Lab was asked to create the museum for the former manager of an enamelware factory, who wanted a space to showcase Chinese craft products – including metalware decorated with elaborate enamel patterns.

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

In response, the architects proposed creating a gallery space for the products accompanied by a coffee shop, a bed and breakfast, restaurant and other activity areas including a study and chess-playing rooms.

To create the cultural centre named Eight Tenths Garden, the studio renovated a four-storey cylindrical hall attached to a two-storey-high building formerly used as a sales centre.

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

The perforated plates of white aluminium cladding the circular building, which the architects folded like the pleats of a fan, are intended to block views from the tranquil garden to the interior.

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

"We use perforated aluminium plates folded in a fan-style to create a veil on the facade," said the architects.

"This veil is not the climate border, it has a glass curtain wall, a yard as well as a balcony behind," they added. "We created a blur between the facade and the climate border."

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

Another two buildings on the site enclose a triangular garden in the centre, which the architects landscaped to include a pool, small rockeries and stone bridges that emulate a 1970s park in the city.

"We hoped to build a garden that pays tribute to the Shanghai street park from the 1970s, as well as to the local garden history," said the architects.

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

A double-height gallery space occupies the first two levels of the circular-planned building. Here, enamelware objects including cups, plates, basins and a bathtub are arranged around the outskirts of the space.

Offices placed on the third floor are occupied by the client's son, who has started a contemporary brand for enamel products.

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

The bed and breakfast bedrooms are located on the fourth floor, each with access to a private courtyard and a vegetable garden occupying the roof.

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab

Eight Tenths Gardens is one of a number of recently completed buildings featuring perforated metal facades. Other examples include a skinny Taiwanese townhouse, a commercial building in Japan and social housing in France.

Photography is by CreatAR.


Project credits:

Chief architect: Yu Ting
Project architect: Ge Jun
Design team: Dai Xinyang
Construction drawings: Zhou Yi Lian, Chen Guohua, Yang Xueting, Ma Xinyu
Interior: Fan Riqiao, Zhang Zhe
Landscape: Guo Wen, Ni Zhicha, Baoyu
Interior and landscape design consultant: Yu Ting
Design Firm: Wutopia Lab
LDI: Shanghai DuJuan Engineering Design and Consultants Limited
Interior Design: ShangRuiYuan Building Design Consultants Limited
Landscape design: Atelier VISION

More images and plans

Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab
Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab
First floor plan
Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab
Second floor plan
Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab
Roof plan
Eight Tenths Garden by Wutopia Lab
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