The striking presence of Grand Milestone is situated at the junction of two core areas of the Central Culture Business District (CCBD) and Qujiang Cultural Industry Cluster (QCIC). The massing of this art centre aims to become a city landmark in the magnificent ancient capital Xi’an in a shape of floating large futuristic crystal box. This shape brings amazing and fashionable touches to the land that boasts a long history and profound culture and take the lead in the trend of the era with a modern and stylish gesture.
EXTERIOR GESTURE OF SOLID AND LIGHT
The Grand Milestone extracts the nature elements to transform it into parts of artwork, inspiring visitors to appreciate the peaceful and natural landscape both indoors and outdoors while watch the exhibition. Designers involved pulled out all the stops for the project, be it architectural solutions, landscape planning, interior design or artworks.
The interior space inherits the lightness of the building and at the same time exudes the contemporary magnificence via the spatial pattern, functions and experiences. The partial structures and textures embody architectural concepts in a broad sense which forms the mixture of lightness and solidness into a harmonious coexistence.
RESHAPING THE LAYOUT OF THE ART GALLERY
The lightness aspect comes from the interior space with the water courtyard that takes part on presenting floating illusion of the building massing. This courtyard is separated into two parts: a water garden and an art gallery. Utilizing different level of gallery roof and water court, the top pond has been divided into three at different levels.
When visitors passed by the water garden, they met wallow trees passing through a three-layer water surface and then transferred to the art gallery. The space under the three-layer water surface reshapes the layout of the art gallery. Six light boxes introduce light into the art spaces under three ponds and water, creating a dramatic light and shadow. The flowing water curtain and the trees in the middle of the lighting box become the main art exhibits in the gallery.
AN ARTISTIC FIELD INSIDE A BROAD WORLD
The 8.5-metres full-height space enclosed by curtain walls and facade of the building core are magnificently showcased on the fourth floor. Cheng Chung Design arrange the space interiors that evokes interaction between people and art with imagination and poetry that display artists’ fantastic works.
There are some flexible and versatile blank areas which are capable of stimulating the public’s imagination and growth of art. With the existence of a giant artwork and a spiral staircase, an artistic ambience can be therefore created. Spiral lines form the cross-floor staircase creates floating effect between the floors in a very flexible, pure and poetic fashion.
There is an ultra-long escalator which is flanked by high stone walls aimed to limit the vision of the escalator users and prevent visual distraction from the outside. The visitors can experience a feeling of time travel in a time tunnel upwards from the first floor to the fourth floor only in 88 seconds. When people arrive at the top floor, their field of vision will suddenly turn wide with the super-scale transparent space offering amazing visual experiences. The 88-second escalator draws on the aesthetics of contrast in philosophy to produce changing experiences, which echo the journey of life.
PROJECT DATA
Project Name
Xi’an Sunac · Grand Milestone Modern Art Centre
Location
Xi’an, China
Completion Date
October 2019
Gross Floor Area
5,500 square metres
Client/Owner/Developer
Sunac Xi’an
Architecture Firm
GAD
Interior Design Firm
Art centre: Cheng Chung Design (CCD)
Model room: SCDA
Landscape Architect
T.R.O.P: terrains + open space
Images
Qilin Zhang & Ting Wang Copyright by Cheng Chung Design (CCD)
