Vector architects   China   In the heart of the city of Jingdezhen, known for its porcelain production, stands this hotel designed with the idea of preserving the constructions of an old industrial complex, including the existing camphor trees. The entire program is organized a

Vector architects   China   Located at the plaza known as Youyi Bay, in Beidahe, this building sculpted in concrete was designed from the section. The Meditation Rotunda on the lower level was arranged vertically and rises 9 meters, while the Skylight Music Hall on top of it is

Vector architects   China   The tea factory is located in a rugged area of steep slopes and tropical flora. Hence the decision to apply the strategy of embedding the entire program into the mountain, and covering it with an artificial hill: a formation of stepped green roofs. W

Vector architects   China   On a slope of the Yanshan Mountains in northern China, at one end of the east-west axis that crosses Beijing, the theater rises as a material symbol of the contrast between the sinuous natural landscape and the vast open urban setting of the city. Th

Vector architects   China   The building was carefully oriented in such a way that the entire complex would reconcile the two realities underlying the particular spatial character of the city of Ningbo, where the sea, ever imperturbable, faces the bustle of the community...

Vector architects   China   The geometry addresses the adjoining urban spaces and its curves redefine the different uses of the square. In the section, the concert hall and a meditation room are superposed, connected by tubes to send sound from one to the other. The round conce

Vector architects   China   The broad program – museum, cultural center, market, and open-air theater – is addressed through a decentralized scheme, with a promenade linking the buildings and stretching through the entire site, from the square below to the roof garden...

Vector architects   China   The project renovates an old industrial complex, and with the idea of preserving what already exists it organizes the program around two courtyards: a central one dominated by camphor and wood, and a space to the west with a pond and brick finishes..

Vector architects   China   As so many other in the country, Shanxi Province experienced a full speed urban development, which led to the destruction of the spatial context that once inscribed the memory of people’s everyday lives. Changjiang Art Museum, as a cultural and share

Vector architects   China   This building sits in a river valley amongst the forests of Wuling Mountain, a scenic area north of Beijing. The site abuts a steep rock cliff to the west, and to the east opens out to an expansive view of the valley’s alluvial plains, and beyond the

Vector architects   China   Located at the northern edge of Beijing, Jinshanling is a two-hour drive from the heart of the city, and is on its way to becoming a destination resort with a very active public life. The village is embraced by undulating mountains in all directions

Vector architects   China   The building is embedded into the gently undulating ground of the wetland by means of a porous framework structure interwoven with the surrounding trees, creating a place closely bound to nature. Through the ‘embedding’ process the lower architectura

Vector architects   China   Haibing Center of Nankai University aims to provide the old campus with a multifunctional cultural space for students, faculty members, and alumni. The site is flanked by water on both sides, the east side facing Horseshoe Lake, on the central axis o

Vector architects   China   Inserted into a typical Chinese courtyard-block, the library is located at the northwest corner of the historical district of Yantai, a port city in northern China. The enclave appeared cluttered or messy, with structures added by residents over the

Vector architects   China   The M Woods Entrance Revitalization is an urban renewal project in the 798 Art Zone of Beijing. The site was originally an abandoned industrial warehouse and then started functioning as an art museum from 2014 onwards. The museum management decided t

Vector architects   China   The restaurant is situated behind the library by the same architects, very close to the sea. We initiated the design process by investigating how best to create a coexisting relationship with the massive and solid library volume. The idea was that, i

Vector architects   China   Located in the core of Beijing’s old town, the building is part of an urban operation that aims to improve life quality through the renovation of several courtyard-buildings of the traditional zayuan type, formed by an irregular open space and a clus

Vector architects   China   Devoted to presenting the intangible cultural patrimony of China to the public, the building is located within the Horticultural Exposition Park of Suzhou, a city that has been declared a World Heritage Site, west of Shanghai. It falls within a well

Vector architects   China   The image that inspires the project is that of an old boat adrift in the ocean for years. With time, the ocean recedes and leaves an empty structure behind, still lying on the beach. Starting from this poetic image, the project focuses on both the in

Vector architects   China   Located in an ecological farm alongside the Yang Cheng Lake in Kunshan, not far from Shanghai, the project consists of four small-scale public buildings, the most important ones being the Harvest Pavilion and the visitor center. The Harvest Pavilion,

Vector architects   China   El punto de partida del proyecto, ubicado en el parque Taoyuan de Chongqing, en el corazón de China, fue la fusión entre el edificio y las líneas ondulantes que caracterizan la topografía del lugar. Con este fin, en vez de construir un ‘objeto’ dispu

Vector architects   China   The hotel sits in the picturesque Li River valley of Yangshuo, surrounded by the region’s characteristic karst mountain scenery. In this unique context, the project intervenes on an old sugar mill built in the 1960s, which had been beautifully preser

Vector architects   China   Situado a tres horas de Pekín y abierto hacia el mar, el edificio completa el equipamiento cultural de un conjunto de vacaciones cuyo objetivo es recuperar los lazos con la naturaleza.

China has the geographic entity of a continent, the economic potential of a small planet, and the complexity of a macrocosmos with room aplenty for different geographies, tongues, and idiosyncracies. China is the politically unanimous country organiz

Vladimir Belogolovsky   In an interview at his studio, Gong Dong analyzes his architecture and explains the projects as the result of a demanding and solitary work process.

Luca Molinari   Respect for nature and critical reinterpretation of building tradition: these are two features of the generation of Chinese architects to which Gong Dong belongs.

Liu Dongyang   Gong Dong studied in Tsinghua and Illinois, and set up Vector Architects just over ten years ago, a studio whose work has soon earned international recognition.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Gong Dong builds with light and with matter. The Beijing architect was dazzled by light on the other side of the Pacific, through his post-graduate training in Illinois; he built luminous and somber works on the coasts of China and deep in the countr

Gong Dong   Since the early 1980s, China’s focus has been fundamentally shifted towards economic development. And it was not until that time that the country opened its doors to integrate with the world. Reflecting in the practice of architecture and the theoret

Libraries have been one of the symbols of bourgeois society. Originally confined to monasterios and palaces, distant havens of elitist knowledge, libraries eventually became quintessential public spaces in the capitalist and increasingly democratic c

The mountainous Yangshuo Country in southern China has just seen the opening of the Alilo Yangshuo resort hotel complex designed by the Beijing-based firm Vector Architects. The project involved retaining and repurposing the installations of an old,