Wutopia Lab 非作建筑设计上海有限公司

Shrine of Everyman

Shrine of Everyman

Shrine of everyman

Wutopia Lab

ARCHITECTS 
Wutopia Lab

PROJECT ARCHITECT
Mu Zhilin

DESIGN TEAM
Nan Xu, Kejie Mi

LEAD ARCHITECT
Yu Ting

LIGHTING CONSULTANT 
Zhang Chenlu

PROJECT NAME
Shrine Of Everyman

ADDRESS
 Chongming District, Shanghai, China

CONSTRUCTION DESIGN COMPANY
Shanghai Zhumeng Architecture Design Co., Ltd.

DESIGN FIRM
Wutopia Lab (www.wutopialab.com)

OWNER
Shanghai Qian Yi Agricultural Development Co., Ltd.

CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
Shanghai Zhumeng Architecture Design Co., Ltd.

STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT
Miao Binhai

PHOTOGRAPHY 
Creatar Images

MATERIAL
Sunlight Panel, Steel

STATUS
Built

AREA
35 Square Meters

TIME
2020.4~2021.10

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Shanghai, China

CATEGORY
Cultural › Pavilion

SHRINE OF EVERYMAN

"There is something you need to hear …"
- Robert Macfarlane 《Underland》
Wutopia Lab converted the abandoned pump house at the Dongtanyuan's Qian Shao Farm of Bright Food (Group) into Shrine of Everyman.

Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

The client wanted to take advantage of the excellent view of the pump house on the river to transform what was once a farm infrastructure, but is now abandoned, into a rest stop for visitors.

However, I did not want to turn the pump house into a structure that the architects manipulated for form but had no connection with the users and the local area.

Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

One of the key charms of traditional Chinese culture is that everyday places can be elevated into sacred spaces through the construction of shared memories. That's when the chocolate came to my mind.

Milk chocolate, reinvented by Shanghai's food industry (including the predecessor of Bright Food (Group)) during a time of material scarcity, was a boon to the Chinese people of that period and was once an integral part of Shanghai's culinary memory.

Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

I decided to use milk chocolate as the theme of the pump room to awaken the memories of ordinary people who were temporarily forgotten because of the great material abundance, while still enjoying life, thus turning an abandoned facility into a sacred space for ordinary people - Shrine of Everyman.

I designed a brown semi-circular pool suspended above the river as a base to separate the pump house from the surrounding daily landscape, which symbolizes chocolate.

Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

The old pump house was replaced with a new structure of 13 layers of translucent polycarbonate panels standing on the water, symbolizing milk.

Using my daughter's favorite motif, “cloud”, as a symbol, the layers of polycarbonate panels form jagged doorways and overlapping silhouettes to rewrite the flat experience of the landscape as well as provoke conversations and inspirations.

Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

The base of the pump house is cantilevered from the rectangular semi-basement to a maximum distance of 4.6 m. The structural engineers used beam overhangs near the basement and thin slab overhangs up to 2.5 m from the pool.

This allows the new pump house to be visually prominent in the surrounding landscape by achieving a floating effect, both from the perspective of the road and from the water surface.

Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

The new pump house in the center of the pond is realized by a horizontal 9.6m span with a minimum structural scale of 85mm steel beams and 60mm steel columns.

The Shrine of Everyman was created through the connection of thin steel-sheet-roof, framed by light and translucent polycarbonate "cloud-doors". And it was reinforced by the experience of walking through the straight path into the pump room.

It is the translucent uncertainty and the pools that isolate the landscape that create the sacredness of the place.

Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

And it was reinforced by the experience of walking through the straight path into the pump room.

You walk into Shrine of Everyman as if you are walking into a shrine shaped by the shared memories of ordinary people.

Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

Inside, you can look into the distance and see a beautiful earthly landscape that was reclaimed by countless ordinary people. You know that everyday miracles are actually done by ordinary people.

"You are absolutely completely in void, like being in outer space… You get to the point where there is no God, no past, no future, just now and the next millisecond."
- Robert Macfarlane 《Underland》

Shrine of Everyman


Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman


Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman


Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman
Shrine of Everyman

Wutopia Lab 非作建筑设计上海有限公司
Wutopia Lab 非作建筑设计上海有限公司
Jingan District, Shanghai, China 上海市静安区