Tower for Meditation and Views
Tower for Meditation and Views
Jumping House Lab
YEAR
2019
LOCATION
Huzhou, China
CATEGORY
Houses
The tiny tower is located at the corner of a small artist community hidden in groves of bamboos in a large paddy field.
The community consists of four commonly seen one-floor houses, each with a dual-pitched roof and renovated. Apart from these dwellings, there is a small pond and a paved yard.
The community provides various spaces for artists’ living, working, exhibiting and get-togethers; whereas the tiny tower is where the artists would head for when their work requires a more spiritual space. Other times it could serve as a unique guest room.
HIGH OFF THE GROUND
While the community is hidden in bamboos, the small tower, braced by a seemingly random wooden support arranged according to clear construction logic, goes up to 6 metres high off the ground, providing a view above the bamboo groves.
On scorching summer days, climb up the two ladders and get inside the small tower, and summer breezes are all around. Such an experience could be a pleasant escape from this world.
THREE VIEWS
This 3.2m * 3.8m off-the-ground small room that hides from the world offers the visitor three distinct views.
A wild view towards the paddy field; an upward view towards the sky for meditation; and a long, narrow horizontal view towards the yard – while enjoying their tea, the visitor could see pine trees in the front or overlook the ponds.
These views have decided the appearance and layout of the small tower.
TWO DISTINCT EXPERIENCES
Inside the small tower, there is a wall dividing the space into an ‘inward’ half and an ‘outward’ half, each establishing its own atmosphere and therefore a particular experience.
The inward half and the outward half, the shady half and the bright half, the half for meditation and the half for views.
UNCOMPLETED
For various reasons, the small tower is completed while the community’s renovation has been suspended at 80% of its completion.
The uncompleted 20% could be a symbol of the distance between the ideal and the reality.
Such flawed reality hence coincidentally left the tower an absolute spiritual space.
