Lake Sanyon Arts and Cultural Square in China | Chi Wai Chan

This was a winning entry for a competition to design an arts and cultural square at Lake Sanyon in Daqing, China by Chi Wai Chan. The project examines the relationships between the elements of the water, the sky and the earth. A waterfront promenade that ensues the formal attributes and fluidity of the water, a 1,394 m long canopy with LED display that transpires the form of the clouds and a ground condition of self-similar marine lifeform that establishes the view corridors to the lake; these three design elements serve as the organizing apparatus for the design of the square.

The architecture of the individual buildings experiments with a contemporary aesthetics attainable only through digital means. Tools such as Maya, Rhino and Grasshopper were utilized during the design process. Formal attainments and aesthetic affects were a result of a series of EP curves and the manipulations of the attributes of the digital mesh. The process was intuitional and the outcome was unpredictable.