Part A: Research of the Exemplar 1 - Bamboo Wall House

BY Kengo Kuma &Associates (2002)

Location: Shuiguan, Badaling, China

Design date: 2000-2002

Location:Beijing, China

Program: Villa

Total floor area: 528.25 sqm

Site area: 1931.57sqm

Structure: Reinforced concrete, 1 story, 1 basement [2]

Interior of the house

http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm(accessed March 5, 2010)

 

Interior of the house

http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm(accessed March 5, 2010)

Facade of the house

http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm(accessed March 5, 2010)

The exterior view and the site of the house

http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm(accessed March 5, 2010)

Kuma talking about the Great Bamboo Wall House

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBoeWBdLOCA(accessed March 5, 2010)

The Great (Bamboo) Wall House where located at the outer Beijing, near the original Great Wall, is part of a groundbreaking development by Chinese tycoon Pan Shi Yi, who brought together 12 leading architects from across Asia. [1] The main facade was made by a straight, two story wall of vertical bamboo, that like the Great Wall itself, had conformed to the undulating ground at its base. [1]  The architects Kuma made the Great Bamboo Wall House becoming a sort of tongue in cheek critique of its ancestor by sliced it off in a perfectly straight, horizontal line at the top.[1]

As an environment filter

Main material of the House: Bamboo

The advantages of Bamboo as a housing material:

• allows the natural light, winds, sound and other elements of the outside natural world to filter into the interior. [3]
• the light, air and other elements generated inside to flow into the exterior [3]

As a container of human activities

Using the thickness of bamboo canes creating the wall of the house, making varied spacing to define a different level of fluidity from one space to the next, separates one zone from another while affording glimpses of space beyond. [1]

As a delightful experience

The location of the Great Bamboo Wall House is close to the Great Wall of China, and the material of the surroundings are bricks and stones, using bamboo can get the contrast of these material but also can fit into the environment. [3]

The two-story space room in Bamboo Wall House acted as an exterior room (enclosed by bamboo walls on three sides) let the space to be sensed from within the rest of the house, and people there can see through it to the landscape outside. The feeling of the room can affording solicitude and contemplation as well as lively stimulation. [1]

Reference:

[1] Kateigaho International Edition Japan's Arts and Cluture magazine. 2005. Kengo Kuma. http://int.kateigaho.com/mar04/architect-kuma.html (accessed 5 March,2010)

[2] Kengo Kuma & Associates. 2008. Great (Bamboo) Wall. http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm (accessed 5 March, 2010).
 [3] Materialicious shelter, materials and objects. 2009. Kengo Kuma Designs The Great (Bamboo) Wall House in China. http://www.materialicious.com/2009/10/kengo-kuma-designs-the-great-bamboo-wall-house-in-china.html (accessed 5 March 2010),