Wutopia Lab perches simple pavilion on banks Chinese lake

Chinese studio Wutopia Lab has completed The Lake House Life Experience Pavilion in Shanghai, wrapping two existing structures on the edge of a lake with facades of aluminium and ceramic panels.

Located in Daning Park, the 190-square-metre pavilion was commissioned by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), and contains an exhibition area, VIP rooms and cafe.

Wutopia Lab describes the project as being defined by two constraints. Firstly, it was required to preserve the structures of two existing buildings on the site and not disturb the surrounding landscape and vegetation "even a millimetre".

Secondly, the project was required to complete within 45 days, necessitating a modular construction system that could be easily brought onto site and assembled.

In response, Wutopia Lab adopted a strategy defined by founder Yu Ting as a "house within a house", wrapping the existing buildings with new exteriors based on standardised materials and dimensions.

The largest of the two buildings required more extensive upgrades to its weatherproofing and insulation, and so was given a new exterior of aluminium panels supported by an integrated steel frame.

Inside, an exhibition space and series of VIP rooms were lined by a full-height glass wall, incorporating sliding doors which open out onto a large covered terrace overlooking the lake.

Cut-outs in both the reception area and the back of the exhibition space have been made to allow trees to grow through the structure, while to the west a small skylight projects from the roof.

"Using horizontal layers of light and shadow, I organised the preserved trees, vertical greenery, lobby, exhibition hall, three uniquely themed VIP rooms, willow-lined colonnade, terrace, boardwalk, and cafe into a linear spatial journey – inhabitable, walkable," said Ting.

"In our aesthetic tradition, a beautiful life is framed through landscapes, gently unfolding across the horizon," he added.

Next door, the smaller neighbouring cafe building was subject to a lighter touch in the form of what the studio called a "purely visual" layer of concave ceramic wall panels, laid in horizontal strips in contrast to the vertical seams of the aluminium.

Lined internally with blue patterned tile work, this cafe opens onto a surrounding external seating area, connected to a wooden boardwalk that links the pavilion with the surrounding park.

Previous projects by Wutopia Lab include a bookshop alongside a clay museum in Yixing designed to evoke the inside of a teapot, and an arts centre in Hainan wrapped in translucent mesh informed by mosquito nets.

The photography is by Liu Guowei.

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