Bronze Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2026
Lacquer Art Experience Pavilion Art Center
by Jie Li
- A' Design Award 2026 Bronze Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- CLIENT: Li Jie
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 6,115
- Verification code 8548510B8D · Verify this award
About Lacquer Art Experience Pavilion Art Center
Lacquer Art Experience Pavilion is a cultural building located in Fengshou village, Shanghai. The pavilion contains exhibition spaces, artist studios, a tea room and courtyards open to visitors and villagers. Local houses use white walls and grey sloping roofs. The pavilion follows this local practice with six groups of separate sloping roofs and white painted facades. Narrow gaps between the roof volumes form small alleys and squares. Sunlight, air and views pass through these gaps freely. Long windows on the north and south sides support natural ventilation.
The Lacquer Art Experience Pavilion Art Center by Jie Li emerges as a compelling study in contextual architectural integration, positioning a contemporary cultural institution within an established residential landscape where traditional building forms and natural topography create a rich material and spatial dialogue. This architectural intervention demonstrates considerable compositional intelligence in its relationship to site, neither dominating its neighbors nor retreating into invisibility, but rather establishing a measured presence that suggests cultural significance through geometric clarity and strategic illumination rather than monumental scale or formal exuberance. The rectilinear geometry and planar white surfaces invoke modernist architectural traditions of pure form and honest material expression, yet the modest scale and thoughtful siting suggest sensitivity to vernacular context and community integration that distinguishes this approach from more assertive modernist gestures. The warm golden illumination emanating from the interior spaces creates an invitational quality, transforming the structure into a beacon within the residential fabric particularly evident during transitional lighting conditions when natural illumination wanes and artificial light sources gain relative visual prominence. This luminous quality serves multiple communicative functions: it announces the building's cultural and public character, distinguishing it from surrounding private residential structures; it suggests active interior occupation and ongoing cultural programming, implying vitality and contemporary relevance; and it creates an emotional register of warmth and welcome that counterbalances the potential austerity of geometric white modernism. The integration with surrounding landscape demonstrates sophisticated environmental awareness, with the building appearing to emerge from rather than impose upon the dense forest context, suggesting architectural strategies that work with existing topography and vegetation rather than requiring wholesale site clearing. The neighboring structures visible in the composition provide essential scale reference and cultural context, their traditional peaked rooflines and earth-toned material palettes evoking regional architectural heritage and established community character. The architect's apparent decision to employ contemporary formal language while respecting the scale, massing, and landscape integration patterns of surrounding development suggests a nuanced approach to cultural architecture that honors tradition through contextual sensitivity rather than stylistic mimicry. The broader environmental context visible in the composition, with waterway, distant industrial infrastructure, and rolling topography, positions this cultural institution within larger geographic and economic systems, suggesting the role such facilities play in maintaining cultural identity and creative practice within rapidly developing or transforming regions. The photographic representation itself demonstrates curatorial intelligence in its timing and vantage point, capturing the structure during conditions that maximize the visual impact of interior illumination while maintaining sufficient environmental light to render the rich contextual landscape, creating an image that functions as both architectural documentation and evocative environmental portrait. One might contemplate how this architectural approach to cultural programming, modest in scale yet clear in purpose, illuminated yet integrated, contemporary yet contextually responsive, offers a model for cultural infrastructure that serves communities without overwhelming them, preserving and presenting traditional craft practices within architectural environments that speak to both heritage and contemporary creativity.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The practice of white walls and grey sloping roofs is basically adopted in the folk dwellings of Fengshou village. The experience pavilion adopts 6 groups of scattered sloping roof "clusters" to echo the "architectural prototype" of local residents; The facade material continues the local practice, using white paint. At the same time, the crack space between the clusters can allow sunlight, air and people's sight to pass through freely in order to bring a sense of breathing to the building.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Building area: 454.2 square meters.Width 16900 mm x Depth 16200mm.
- Tags
- architecture, rural building, cultural center
- Production Technology
- The east and north sides of the base are the areas of villagers' self-built houses with poor construction quality. The south and west sides of the base are country parks with excellent view. From the perspective of master planning, the east and north sides of the building are designed as "serving Spaces" and the south and west sides are designed as "served Spaces" for public activities.
The scale of the site is about 20*30 meters. An outdoor "virtual courtyard" for tourists and villagers is based on the south side. The "virtual courtyard" is mainly composed of five "view frames" facing the landscape park on the south side and a piece wall on the west side, so as to keep the public open to the maximum extent while limiting the space. Space was defined as "serving space" and "served space" in an internal "solid” courtyard, the landscape stairs were set on the east side of the garden, also a wall between the stairs and courtyard was set to maximize the isolation to the east environment, Through the opening of the cave, it is obvious to see the pitched roofs of the houses and the people walking up and down the stairs. Due to the building's cluster form, there are a lot of “Crack Space” to connect the interior courtyard, interior space, exterior courtyard, and the country park landscape in the distance. - Design Challenge
- 1) Challenges at the Site Level
The experience center is a public open space. It is crucial that visitors from the nearby park and villagers can freely pass through the building. Under the call of national rural revitalization, the local village government has started to organically update the original village. The lacquerware experience center was introduced as a cultural and creative industry, hoping to attract visitors from the surrounding park and boost the economic development of the village. In terms of site design, the boundaries of the courtyards on the south, north and west sides are designed as open fences, only serving to define the site boundaries. Visitors from the park and villagers can enter the site from the north and west sides. The main entrance and the internal hall are located on the west side. After entering the experience center, visitors can walk along the south side of the internal courtyard to visit three high exhibition spaces and artist studios. On the north side of the studios, there is an open staircase. Visitors can walk through the "perforated screen wall" via the staircase to the experience room on the north side of the second floor, and then cross the high hall and three high exhibition halls through the "bridge corridor" to reach the tea room on the east side of the second floor. The entire building, from the interior to the exterior, is a public cultural space that allows free movement.
2) Challenges at the Humanistic Level
The village is located in the riverside area between the urban area of Pujiang Town and the Huangpu River. The village was formed spontaneously by the original residents along the water, presenting an organically grown urban texture. The cluster of pitched-roof buildings is situated on a three-level wooden landscape platform. The six independent pitched roofs are separated from each other, creating gaps of various sizes between the volumes, which serve as "squares" and "alleys" on the roof. Visitors can wander among them, recreating the experience of a traditional village and providing humanistic care for both villagers and visitors at the level of habitation.
3) Challenges at the Climatic Level
The project is located on the banks of the Huangpu River in Minhang District, Shanghai. The site is crisscrossed by waterways and has a high humidity in the space environment. It has a subtropical monsoon climate, and users experience significant cold in winter and heat in summer. On the north-south section, it can be seen that the north wall of the first-floor restaurant and the mezzanine experience room has a long strip window, and vertical ventilation windows are set in the gaps between the clusters of buildings on the south side. The strip windows on the side walls of the second floor space are respectively arranged at the top and bottom, serving a ventilation function. The north-south through windows provide natural ventilation conditions for the experience center, reducing the load on air conditioning and making it an environmentally friendly building. - Project Duration
- The project started in November 2020 and finished in January 21 in the Fengshou village, Shanghai.
- Operation Flow
- The experience pavilion belongs to the public space, and it is very important for visitors and villagers to traverse the building freely. As for the aspect of the design level, the boundary of the courtyard on the south and northwest was designed as an open wall, which only serves as the boundary of the site.
Visitors and villagers can enter the site from the north and west side. The main entrance and internal lobby are located on the west side. After entering the experience pavilion, visitors can visit the internal courtyard which connects exhibition space and artist studios, on the north side of the studio is an open staircase, visitors can wander through the stairs to cross the "crack of the wall" to get to the “Experiencing Room”, and then across the exhibition hall through a bridge, finally arrive at the east tea room on the second floor.
The first floor is also connected by an outdoor staircase to the third floor, an internal courtyard was surrounded by six groups of an individual sloped roofs. The “crack space” between the pitched roof forms "laneways" and "plazas" of different sizes, through which the view can be traverse to the south and west side of the landscape park. - Research
- Lacquer Art Experience Pavilion is located in the Fengshou village, Shanghai. Under the call of the National Rural Revitalization, the local village government began to renovate the original village organically. The lacquer art experience Pavilion was introduced as a cultural and creative industry in order to attract tourists from the surrounding parks through the cultural and creative space experience to drive the economic development of the village.
The building successfully interprets the contemporary regeneration of traditional village architecture through the design language of modern minimalism:
①Architectural Texture. Fengshou Village is a typical traditional village in the south of the Yangtze River. The dwellings are built along both sides of the river, from the prospect of the master plan the building shows the architectural texture of free growth. The scale of the building area is about 18*18 meters, and the shape of the building block must break up and reorganized so that it can be well integrated into the delicate architectural texture of the area.
②Cluster form Impression. The practice of white walls and grey sloping roofs is basically adopted in the folk dwellings of Fengshou village. The experience pavilion adopts 6 groups of scattered sloping roof "clusters" to echo the "architectural prototype" of local residents; The facade material continues the local practice, using white paint.
③Guidance of Landscape. "Serving" and "Served" Spaces under the guidance of landscape: the east and north sides of the base are the areas of villagers' self-built houses with poor construction quality. The south and west sides of the base are country parks with excellent view. From the perspective of master planning, the east and north sides of the building are designed as "serving Spaces" and the south and west sides are designed as "served Spaces" for public activities.
④”Virtual & Real courtyard”: the scale of the site is about 20*30 meters. An outdoor "virtual courtyard" for tourists and villagers is based on the south side.Space was defined as "serving space" and "served space" in an internal "solid” courtyard, the landscape stairs were set on the east side of the garden, also a wall between the stairs and courtyard was set to maximize the isolation to the east environment.
⑤Promenade Architecture: The experience pavilion belongs to the public space, and it is very important for visitors and villagers to traverse the building freely. As for the aspect of the design level, the boundary of the courtyard on the south and northwest was designed as an open wall.The first floor is also connected by an outdoor staircase to the third floor, an internal courtyard was surrounded by six groups of an individual sloped roofs. The “crack space” between the pitched roof forms "laneways" and "plazas" of different sizes, through which the view can be traverse to the south and west side of the landscape park. - Inspiration
- Fengshou Village is a typical traditional village in the south of the Yangtze River. The dwellings are built along both sides of the river, from the prospect of the master plan the building shows the architectural texture of free growth. The BnB is located on the westernmost side of the Fengshou Village and the island adjacent to the country park. The island is surrounded by water on three sides, and the south side is integrated with the country park landscape green space. The scale of the building area is about 18*18 meters, and the shape of the building block must break up and reorganized so that it can be well integrated into the delicate architectural texture of the area.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Zhu Ruizi, Pespective 1, 2021.
Image #2: Photographer Zhu Ruizi, Pespective 2, 2021.
Image #3: Photographer Zhu Ruizi, Pespective 3, 2021.
Image #4: Photographer Zhu Ruizi, Pespective 4, 2021.
Image #5: Photographer Zhu Ruizi, Pespective 5, 2021.