The Shanghai firm Wutopia Lab, headed by Yu Ting, recently completed a work of fluid forms in Beidaihe District, in the city of Qinhuangdao. The spaces of this 1,300-square-meter cultural center are organized in a sequence of independent elements containing an art gallery, a theater, a yoga room, a dance studio, and a tea room. The outer wall alternates solid, fretwork, and transparent surfaces, and creates a triangular form with gently curved corners enclosing a black reflecting pool. The project drew inspiration from the “shifting ink line”produced by the brushstrokes of traditional Chinese paintings, with lines varying in thickness, density, and shape.

The exhibition gallery stretches out in sinuous lines. The oval-shaped auditorium is lit from above by a curving clerestory cut into the ceiling. The yoga room is in a cylindrical volume whose glass facade gradually changes color up its two heights, breaking the overall monochromatic scheme of the complex. The rectangular dance studio is designed as a translucent glass box. The tea room is an intimate silent space, a corner opened by a long horizontal window.