Project by Xiong Sun: view towards the valley.
Project by Xiong Sun: conceptual section.
Project by Xiong Sun: view to the west.
Project by Xiong Sun: view to the east.
Breaking the Scale
Student Project: Xiong Sun
From the viewpoint of adaptation Xiong Sun’s project demonstrates that architecture does not solely operate within its immediate surroundings - the ever present contextual influences and bioclimatic factors - but can also provoke the engagement of a larger landscape, in this particular case the whole Val Bregaglia.
Resting on two supportive walls the project’s bare concrete volume is positioned in such ways that its central cross-axis (enforced by two large “panorama”-windows in the longitudinal elevations) points towards the valley’s intersection with its steep flanking gulches, and directs the view towards Piz Campanin and Piz della Forcola in the further West.
The interior consists of two upper floors - the first more cozily furnished in wood and partially lit by fortress-like light-slits, the second in concrete and entirely illuminated through zenithal light, whereas both hover above the open ground floor. Creating an artificial topography underneath the building, the ground contains all functional utilities, besides offering exhibition and recreational spaces that extend from within outwards towards the sculpture garden.
The power of the project derives from its brute material expression, the simple spatial organization that permits a differentiated exhibition use, and lastly the often forgotten fact that distances are as much real as they are in our mind.
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