Scale Art Design Corporation: Winner of International Residential Architecture Awards 2021. New style ink and water, garden partitions, shades of ink grey and beige, art collections spanning five centuries, gallery-style mansions, elegant moods, physical and mental pleasure – a beautiful home for oriental literati living art

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In a first collaboration with David Chipperfield, designer Botta Lai uses ‘ink garden’ and ‘art collection’ as a source of creativity, blending the structural beauty of space with the beauty of art objects. The three-storey space incorporates a collection spanning five centuries, and Botta Lai uses a modern and simple approach to create a new ink garden full of art and spiritual philosophy.

In his “Miscellany of the Hometown”, Mr. Contradiction wrote that “Jiangnan is the home of the Chinese soul”. In the face of the chaotic modern society and the cultural impact of the East and the West, how to build a place that is in line with the Chinese literati temperament without losing the aesthetics of modern art is an important consideration for designer Botta Lai in the Yuetzhuang project.

The facade of inky grey brick and stone is solemn and simple, the buildings vary in height and are scattered randomly in the water of the Xixi Wetland, with willows fluttering and birds chirping, making the south of the river a picturesque and dreamlike settlement.

Echoing David Chipperfield’s minimalist architecture, the interior’s hardworking lines are equally simple and square. The warm white walls with cool grey pillars symbolically reproduce the unique colour palette of the white walls and tiles of the South China Sea; when you enter the lobby from the front courtyard, the large area of artistic marble spreads out like an ink landscape painting, and the ancient elegance of the South China Sea flows through the space.

When the soft white light is switched on at night, the revolving staircase looks like a water curtain galaxy flowing down, and the written texture is reflected in the eyes and the heart. On the ground floor, to the left of the entrance is the sculptor Zhu Ming’s “Tai Chi”, while on the opposite right is the giant paper sculpture “Vajra Sutra”, by the Japanese national treasure, wa- ga-shi, and the designer Botta Lai has used a classical Chinese gardening technique to separate the 23-metre-long deep space –With the help of geometrically framed sliding glass doors, the ground floor is divided into a number of functional areas such as the vestibule, event area, wine cellar, chess room and gymnasium, which are also a combination of modern art hangings and classical furniture.

Unlike the elegant ink and marble, the bedrooms have wooden floors, original wooden cabinets, soft white chairs and silver grey bedding, with light yellow lighting and translucent sliding doors with grille texture. The study shelves are decorated with a collection of ironware and wood carvings, where the magnificence of the old days is frozen, and where the artistic charm of the collection grows.

Project Details
Firm
Scale Art Design Corporation

Project Name
No.14 Xixi Yuezhuang, Hangzhou – An Artistic Residence of Oriental Literati Living

Architect/Designer
Botta Lai

International Residential Architecture Awards Category
Private Housing Built

Project Location
Hangzhou City , Zhejiang Province

Team
Botta Lai, Tianjin Gao, Jun Zhou, Yuxuan Li, Yunlei Lei, Chunliu Bai

Country
China

Photography ©Credit
©Di Zhu

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