Project by Vincent Pu Zhang @vincentpuzhang
Sound is the centre of my project, acting as the medium through which we, as humans, connect with the sublimity of the natural world. The composition of the site, in its material and spatial considerations, invites wind and rain to create music through elements such as floating bamboo sticks and metal gutters. In doing so, it complicates the long-standing distinction between culture and nature.
The site brings together housing units, hot spring bathhouses, a communal kitchen and dining hall, a modest greenhouse with working farms, and a large library. The bathhouses are eight-sided, clothed in fabric, and topped with gutters and bamboo-gourd systems that “sing” as rainwater passes through them. Within the library, suspended bamboo responds to wind, while wind chimes around communal areas extend the acoustic field.
The project explores how architecture can engage impermanence through sound, allowing nature to “speak” and inviting more attentive, embodied ways of listening.“
