The Quartet – Songzhuang Z Museum by TEAM_BLDG

Located in Songzhuang Village, Songyang County, Zhejiang Province, the Z Museum sits over four hundred meters above sea level, nestled deep withinside the mountains.

It is stated that previous to 2017, this turned into an area even maximum locals of Songyang had by no means visited—or maybe heard of. As a end result, the village has controlled to maintain a whole lot of its unique man or woman, which include its conventional housing and ancient spatial fabric.

In early 2024, TEAM_BLDG turned into invited to adopt a challenge on this 600-year-antique village: to convert a brick-and-concrete residential residence constructed withinside the Nineteen Nineties into Z MUSEUM – the primary modern-day rural artwork museum in China devoted to the subject matter of weaving.

superior to Stand Out than to Disappear

The unique structure stands in a distinguished vicinity withinside the village—its scale and cloth starkly evaluation with the excoriating low, non-stop rows of conventional rammed-earth houses. Having lengthy been uninhabited, the constructing have been taken into consideration for upkeep on a couple of occasions. It wasn’t till the modern operator, Mountain Creations, proposed reworking it into the Z Museum that a clean imaginative and prescient started to take shape.

From the outset, the operator conveyed a definitive layout route to TEAM_BLDG: for the reason that constructing’s incongruity with the village context turned into a longtime fact, in preference to concealing or diminishing it, why now no longer decorate this evaluation in a manner this is memorable? At the equal time, this evaluation ought to be suitable and graceful—resonating each with the spirit of an artwork museum and with the man or woman of the village itself.

A Quartet and a Color-Shifting Skin

Faced with the dense and inflexible façade of the unique structure, the layout started with a deconstructive approach. Drawing on the dimensions and spatial rhythm of the excoriating antique houses, the constructing turned into vertically divided into 4 volumes from the interior out, with internal squares inserted in among. These 4 volumes have been then interconnected vertically and horizontally. Varying rooftop terraces and semi-obvious shading canopies have been introduced, producing a dynamic composition of staggered heights—what the architects describe as a “quartet” of forms.

To visually “lighten” the mass of the unique constructing, the architects took thought from conventional fabric weaving.

Aluminum rectangular tubes measuring 20mm x 40mm have been painted purple on 3 facets and white on one, then organized right into a great lattice that wraps the complete façade. The end result is a mass that feels each sensitive and diaphanous.

Concerned that the aluminum lattice would possibly seem too rational and mechanical, the layout crew subtle the association via way of means of various the spacing of the slats. Particularly at the terrace levels, the lattice introduces multidimensional interweaving, in addition amplifying the feel of “woven skin.”

In the early morning, as daylight starts to clear out into the mountain village, mild and shadow start to “weave” throughout the façade. Thanks to the purple-and-white orientation of the aluminum slats, the constructing takes on diffused and ever-transferring colorings for the duration of the day. This approach that every go to to the Z Museum might also additionally provide a awesome impression: on bright, sunny afternoons, it could seem as a translucent red volume; on wet or snowy days, it turns into a serene, white monolith.