Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie

CUISUBA YI CULTURAL & VISITOR CENTER

West-line studio

ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE
Yudan Luo, Ke Zhou, Minghua Ou, Bin Liu

AREA
2569 m²

CLIENT
Guizhou Province Dafang County Keteleeria River Tourism Investment Development Service Co. Ltd

LOCATION
BIJIE, CHINA

PHOTOGRAPHS
Jingsong Xie, Haobo Wei

CATEGORY
TOURISM, CULTURAL CENTER

STRUCTURE
Yuanping Li, Dingping Fu

PROJECT MANAGER
Xuanqin Gong

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Haobo Wei, Jingsong Xie

YEAR
2021

MANUFACTURERS
Chongqing Yuancheng Aluminum Industry Co. Ltd, Chuanyao Glass Co., Ltd, Hubei Multicolor Redstone Industry Co. Ltd

On a northwestern Guizhou typical plateau, placed at an altitude of above 2,000 meters in-between untouched grassland hills and mountains, stands the Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei

Completed in March 2021, the center was conceived as a landmark to pay homage to the Yi people, an ethnic minority group mainly residing in the mountainous regions and rural areas of South-West China.

The building grows from a slope with a maximum inclination of 20 degrees, surrounded by mountains all around.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei

Commissioned by the Dafang County Tourism Development Office in order to provide the basic structure to promote tourism in the area, the center aims to become a symbolic landmark celebrating Yi culture.

West-line Studio has a long history in building cultural centers in Guizhou province influenced by local ethnic minorities; the practice’s approach has always been characterized by a deep research on the peculiar cultural aspects of a particular community, which can result in rites, fabrics, patterns, construction techniques, festivals, and pictograms, in order to bring some of these unique features into the design, creating a strong bond with local culture and collective memory.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei

For thousands of years, the Yi people have been considering the plateau a sacred place where to worship heaven and earth and celebrate the ‘Torch Festival’, one of their main holidays.

The festival commemorates a famous Yi wrestler who used pine tree torches to stop a locusts’ plague.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie

Symbolism has always played a significant role in West-line Studio’s work, and in this cultural center, the connection with Yi's ancient culture appears through many layers.

First of all the building mass resembles the traditional Yi sacrificial altar, where sacrifices refer to offers.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei

The building, in its simple volume, is characterized by an iconic roof consisting of a concave arc.

This architectural gesture aims to show a response to the tension of nature, and again refers to Yi sacrificial symbols.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie

The roof establishes a dialogue with the sky through the skylight system and the concave shape works as a rainwater collector.

Via the gutter system the water vertically flows through the outdoor courtyards, creating a vertical connection of light and rain throughout the building, while solving the internal lighting and ventilation.

Another important feature is the outdoor concrete ramps, which with their folding and undulating movement evoke the ascension procession over to hills during the ‘Torch Festival’.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei

The construction system is based on concrete technology mixed with local sand.

The sand mixture helps engrave the wooden texture given by the formworks, realized with recycled panels from declining Yi houses and local pine wood.

The rough concrete interiors together with the black metal window frames and ceiling help frame the outdoor landscape, making it the protagonist of the interior atmosphere.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei

The three floors are characterized by a free plan where two structural units combine all the main service functions; this spatial production mode derives from the so-called ‘group technology,’ typical of Guizhou mountain villages.

The indoor hanging courtyard, with its red and yellow skylights, creates a holy atmosphere and a sense of ritual space from the contrast between the colored lights and dark space below.

The indoor atmosphere is kept dark on purpose so the outdoor bright scenery can stand out; visitors become silent wanderers of the wild grassland and are immersed in a suspended time as gazers of history.

Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie

The spatial indoor layout combines the ritual mnemonic structure with a more contemporary functional system.

Yi Cultural Center aims to become a wordless monument that stands alone resembling Yi culture through symbolism and in creating a ritual atmosphere.


Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Jingsong Xie
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
© Haobo Wei


Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
section
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
section


Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
drainage system
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
skylights and circulation system
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
outdoor front ramp
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
outdoor back staircase


Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
1F plan
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
2F plan
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
3F plan
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
roof plan


Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
southeast elevation
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
southwest elevation
Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
northwest elevation


Cuisuba Yi Cultural & Visitor Center
site plan