We’ve shown you Prtizker Prize-winning architect Wang Shu’s work before, but his 2006 Ceramic House in Jinhua City, China deserves a mention as well. There is always an element of poetry to his structures and this project is no exception. Wang Shu’s explanation of his inspiration for the Ceramic House is nearly as lyrical as the building itself:
“The small house of one hundred square meters, a café, I decided to make it a container. Whether it will hold wind or water is completely determined by intuition.
Where a design will start is often accidental. For instance, in this case I can explain it by the form of an ink stone from the Song Dynasty [960-1279]. The ink stone is made for the function only. His surface is made of two parts. One is comparatively plain and the other is a slope. The plain part is for storing ink and the slope part is for dripping ink. I asked myself what I would see standing on the surface of the ink stone and what from the bottom.
As it is a pottery ink stone, it reminded me of my friend Zhou Wu, who makes earthenware. He made a piece of porcelain with a slope on the bottom of the piece. The challenge is to prevent the glaze from dripping when it is in the kiln. He made thousands of such pieces. The ink stone and Zhou Wu’s porcelain became the inspiration for this small house.
Wang Shu is known for being an architect who spends as long as possible at a given site, absorbing the atmosphere, before the design process begins. This receptive study is subject to other inspiration, such as a peer’s porcelain work, then these impressions are transformed or perhaps reinforced by a rigorous drawing regimen. Wang Shu likens sitting in the cafe with a coffee to sitting in the bottom of the ink stone.
“The wind is coming from the southeast and crawls up along the slope to the northwest. Jinhua is a city with a lot of rain. The rain drips from the northwest to the southeast. Several trees are planted on the top of the ink stone slope. Sitting indoors, the view moves upward along the slope and then disappears into infinity.
Garth Clark is the Chief Editor of CFile.
Above image: Ceramic House by Wang Shu of Amateur Architecture Studio in Jinhua City, China. 2006. Photographs by Lu Hengzhong.
Ceramic House by Wang Shu of Amateur Architecture Studio in Jinhua City, China. 2006. Images courtesy of the architects.
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