UCCA DUNE ART MUSEUM, BEIDAIHE, QINHUANGDAO

OPEN Architecture

Constructed among the dunes of a beach along the Yellow Sea, the museum is composed of a sequence of highly amorphous hypogeal rooms, connected and covered by structures that, at first glance, resemble a system of concrete vaults. The complex three-dimensional geometry of each pseudo-vault was cast in a formwork made of small wood board and, for the sections with tight curves, using an elastic material. The architects happily accepted to leave the surfaces irregular and imperfect, with the impressions left by the formwork that exposes how they were built. This honesty of construction was further exalted by a very thin coat of white paint, applied to ensure the most diffuse distribution of light and, at the same time, exalt the elaborate concrete surfaces which are the result of a tectonic process linked to the assembly of the formwork and the casting of the concrete.

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