Great Wall Versus Bamboo Wall

China

Design: 2001-01

Construction: 2001


The project Commune by the Great Wall invited 12 Asian architects to build a commune consisting of a hundred villas in a valley amidst the forest adjacent to the Great Wall of China.

The architects were told to keep the original topography and to use local materials as much as possible. Nevertheless, they were given a completely free hand to design the villas. As a result, the villas were built to reflect the architects' individualitiy and design philosophy and,in the meantime, harmonize with the surroundings.

Our first aim was to learn from the formality of the Great Wall. We were constantly attracted to the fact that the Great Wall has never been an isolated object. The formal quality of it running almost endlessly along the undulating ridgeline without being isolated from the surrounding environment was the nature we were attracted to. That appealed to us as a criticism toward the conventional form of 'architecture' that tends to seek to be an isolated object among the environment. Thus our intention was to apply this nature of the Great Wall to the act of dwelling. This is way the house is titled 'WALL', instead of 'HOUSE'.

As for the material, we used bamboo as much as possible, since it's considered as having a significant meaning among Chinese and Japanese cultures. Depending on density of bamboo and its each diameter, it offers a variety of partitioning of space. In order to make the most of these characteristics, we decided to place a bamboo WALL, a layer of bamboo along the site's inclination just like the Great Wall. The Great Wall in the past portioned off two cultures, but this BAMBOO WALL will not only partition but also unite life and culture in various manners as the Great Wall in particles.