Tropic of Charlie

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Ai Qing Poetry and Culture Center

Students | Charles (Charlie) Allen and Henry Chu

Course | M.S. Design of Cities Studio 2

Faculty | Thom Mayne

Site | Jindong District, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China

Program | Poetry & Cultural Center

Area | ~ 190,000 SqFt

Time | 2022

I Joined the studio of the SCI-Arc’s Master of Science in the Design of Cities which operated at the scale of a building. We warmed up with some combinatory drawing exercises. Then we studied the Berlin Philharmonic as a canonical precedent of an excellent performance space, both acoustically as well as in the way the audience circulates in and out. We then began breaking down the program specified in the competition brief for the Ai-Qing Poetry and Culture Center and arranging it trying to recocile what we learned about the Combinatory Drawings with odd and inflexible program like Philharmonics, with the physicality and location of the building and urban site. We ended up embracing the use of volumes and with their interactions with one another becoming the focal points of the project itself. This led to huge volumetric spaces that stop one in their tracks. While my partner and I may have bucked the combinatory language expected in the studio, we developed a language of our own, and this produced a project that would without a doubt stand out in the city and serve its people.

Combinatory Drawings

Berlin Philharmonic Precendent Study

AI Qing Poetry & Culture Center

Site

Plaza at Street Entrance

Pond, Exhibit, and Cafe

Cafe and Gift Shop

Poetry Reading Space

Gift Shop

Pond and Poetry Center

Entry to Theaters

Approach to Auditorium

Auditorium Audience