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Bamboo Barrel House Museum in Guangzhou

Part 2 Project 2003
Yip Wing Hang Wendy
 University of Hong Kong | China
Bamboo barrel houses are narrow and deep houses creating long ¡¥strip¡¦ of urban fabric. They are surviving in an old district of Guangzhou near the historic main axis ¡V Beijing Road. The project is to explore how the inherent aesthetic quality of the structure can be revealed. By emptying the resident contents and turning the empty space into a museum, visitors are invited to explore the ¡¥new¡¦ space in the old buildings. Those residents who are to be reallocated will live in the next door - extended bamboo barrel houses. In this way, life of old urban fabric will be maintained and enjoy the new museum space as an extension of their living space.


The uniqueness of the Wendy's project is the sensible and workable strategy for an urban renewal in the old part of historic Guangzhou City of South China. The area is well-known for surviving traditional houses called "Bamboo Barrel Houses ", which were built on a narrow and long plots of land. Those houses have been occupied by the generations of the old residents, but most of the houses need urgently to be rebuilt. The student set herself two primary tasks; to respect the existing urban fabric which has been generating the old urban life of the area, and to regenerate the area with a new new life, without sweeping the existing residents away from the area. She started her investigations with identifying the most effective locations for the new programme; a museum, which is nothing but an emptied space of the traditional "Bamboo Barrel House", revealing the beauty of light through the narrow slots and small gaps of the old structure. She planned to accommodate the new living quotas for the existing occupants on the " museum" sites, on the adjacent bamboo barrel houses by providing additional floors to the existing structural model. It is this humble and modest attitude for responding to the renewal projects, that should be praised. Wendy's proposal is elegant and sensible.
2003
Statement
History of the site - the importance of the surrounding area
Evolution of Bamboo Barrel Houses
Site context 2003 and the unique fabric formed due to the development of a high dense city
Generation of idea by making use of the site characters - the strip fabric
Strategies of museum journey: houses in poor conditions were demolished to create a series of intimate gardens. These gardens are connected by a spine where the exploration routes are in perpendicular directions. ORDER is created inside the amazing maze
Logic of strip space: space in between two walls are exhbition without exhibition; space facing lanes are places to stay for a night; Tea house to introduce arcade street, terrace to connect space, tower to enjoy the roofscape
Ground level of the scuplture park
Upper levels of the scuplture park
Gallery suggests walking through; gate suggests changing spatial experience; walls suggests an extension
The passage, the pool and the ramp act as binding elements along the spine to encourage movement - resting - climbing
Experience of exhibition space without exhibtion along tubular space 1 - before the tea house gathering to enjoying view of the arcade street, it's a walk in between walls; then the gentle steps lead to a balcony facing an internal garden
Experience of exhibition space without exhibtion along tubular space 2 - going up the narrow stairs , it's the viewing platforms for chatting with neighbours
tubular space 3 - when visitors use the skybridge, residents use the ground levels for mahjiong; when residents use strip balcony for light and wind, tourists walk on ground where far end walls suggest a change of pace in the journey
Strip experience
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