Part A: Archetype - Bamboo Wall House

KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES: 

GREAT BAMBOO WALL HOUSE, 2002

Design date: 2000-2002

Location: Beijing, China 

Program: Villa

Site area: 1931.57 m²
Total floor area: 528.25 m²

Structure: Reinforced concrete, 2 storeys, 1 basement

[1]

USING BAMBOO AS A SYMBOLIC ELEMENT OF DESIGN

Interior view - staircase 

http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm(accessed March 4, 2010)

Interior view - bamboo lounge

http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm(accessed March 4, 2010)

Facade of the Great Bamboo Wall

http://int.kateigaho.com/mar04/architect-kuma.html(accessed March 4, 2010)

Exterior scenery 

http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm(accessed March 4, 2010)

"The most interesting architectural possibility is living in contact with materials." - Kengo Kuma. [3]

Kengo Kuma's Great Bamboo Wall House was part of an initiative to develop a series of houses, all by Asian architects along the Great Wall of China.  The design was inspired by the Great Wall and reinforces its conception as a wall moving through the landscape as well as a house.[7]  The significance of building alongside such a monumental structure was key to Kuma's interpretation of the project.  The solidity of China's Great Wall was first and foremost a division, to insulate both their territory and culture from the outside.  Kuma's Bamboo walls, however, while dividing space, were designed to contrast the monument in their fragility and transparency. [4]

HOUSE AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL FILTER

The Great Bamboo Wall manages to express the perfect synthesis between architecture and the land, between human intervention and the work of nature.  As for the material,  bamboo was used as much as possible, since it is considered as having a significant meaning among Chinese and Japanese cultures.[2]  This main feature, made of bamboo, serves as a filter for the surrounding.  Exploiting this aspect, the wall allows light and wind to pass through.  Indeed, historically imported to Japan from China, bamboo is also a symbol of culture exchange, and perfectly suits the work of a Japanese architect in China.[6]  Depending on the individual density and diameter of each bamboo, it offers a variety of partitioning of spaces to great effect.  The Eastern simplicity of the decor creates an ethereal, meditative atmosphere informed by subtle changes in the weather and landscape.[2]

HOUSE AS A CONTAINER OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES

The Bamboo Wall has six bedrooms.  The host bedroom and guest rooms all have seperate bathrooms.  The bamboo lounge, a tea room, the climax of the Bamboo Wall, is encircled by lean bamboos on four sides.  While sipping tea inside, one can spot a beacon tower on the Great Wall looming through the crevices in the bamboo walls.  Besides the open kitchen, the living room and the dining rooms are interlinked.  One of them is next to the hill, with its glass window almost touching the grasses and trees outside.[5]

HOUSE AS A DELIGHTFUL EXPERIENCE


The Bamboo Wall House is a statement of feeling, of very great and very delicate sensitivity.  It is a building that listens to the land around it, and this is the source of its beauty.  The project is part of a wider-ranging programme implemented in 2002 with the participation of ten of Asia's best known architects such as Yung Ho Chang, Shigeru Ban and Gary Chang, for construction of ten villas each, creating a commune of one hundred dwellings in a forest adjacent to the Great Wall of China.[5]

References:

[1] Kengo Kuma & Associates. 2008. Great (Bamboo) Wall. http://www.kkaa.co.jp/E/main.htm (accessed March 4, 2010).

[2] Skott Chun. 2009. Great (Bamboo) Wall by Kengo Kuma. http://travelwithfrankgehry.blogspot.com/2009/12/great-bamboo-wall-by-kengo-kuma.html (accessed March 7, 2010).

[3] Kateigaho. 2004. Architect-Kuma. http://int.kateigaho.com/mar04/architect-kuma.html (accessed March 8, 2010).

[4] NK. 2006. Great (Bamboo) Wall. http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/02/26/great-bamboo-wall/ (accessed March 3, 2010).

[5] Commune by the Great Wall. n.d. http://www.communebythegreatwall.com/en/acc/channel/Villas07.shtml (accessed March 15, 2010).

[6] Hans. 2009. Great (Bamboo) Wall by Kengo Kuma. http://cubeme.com/blog/2009/10/23/great-bamboo-wall-by-kengo-kuma-associates/ (accessed March 15, 2010)

[7] Barreneche, R.A. (2005). Modern House Three. London: Phaidon Press Limited