| Carved House |
Status: under construction
Program: Office, Gallery
Area: 1600 sq.m
Location: Guangzhou, China 

Carved House is an eight story high office building plus art gallery, on a 450sqm site, in the old residential district of Guangzhou. It is designed for our client, who possesses a tremendous Chinese antique collection, not only to display them, but also to invite his guests to share time together, dining, drinking etc. Since his collection covers from fine art to the real functional furniture, we decided not only to design it as a showcase, but to house his collections in an actual space that can be experienced.

Inspired by traditional Chinese spaces, we took an introverted design approach and brought the internal courtyards into an unfolding vertical experience of landscape. Series of internal courtyards and vertical voids are interconnected. There are no clear separations of each floor in order to bring a very unique and spatial experience. The architecture is expressed as a monumental sculpture with it materiality. The poured concrete facade expresses its massiveness with voids carved out. Carved House itself takes a form of art and a modern architecture aesthetic, but it contains a very unique space sequence with traditional art collections.