© Satoshi Asakawa | The Bamboo House Patio
In China, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma was chosen among ten Asian architects to design ten residences each, creating a hundred houses altogether in a forest adjacent to the Great Wall of China: an environmentally mutual commune.
Bamboo House Commune Technical Information
- Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates | Kengo Kuma Bibliography & Profile
- Typology: Hotel + Private Residences
- Location: The Great Wall at Shui Guan, Bada Ling Highway, Beijing, China
- Client: SOHO China Ltd., China
- Material: Bamboo
- Collaborators: ARUP China, Rocco Landscape Design
- Project year: 2003
- Photographs: © Satoshi Asakawa
There are several reasons we chose bamboo as the principal material. First of all, we thought charm in the material’s weakness. The Great Wall built with solid stone and brick had been a device to sever the world of civilization and savage, while the bamboo filter would on the other hand allow light and wind to pass through. Also, the bamboo filter could work as a connection between the worlds. Historically been brought to Japan from China, the bamboo is a symbol of cultural interchange between those two countries.
– Kengo Kuma Architects
The Commune Bamboo House Photographs
© Satoshi Asakawa | Bamboo House Exterior
© Satoshi Asakawa | Bamboo House Entrance
© Satoshi Asakawa | Bamboo House Details
© Satoshi Asakawa
© Satoshi Asakawa
Text by Kengo Kuma Architects
Our basic notion of this project was to leave the original geographical features intact and to utilize the locally produced materials as much as possible. The idea of leaving the land intact is a common consent with the Great Wall’s planning ideology.
All the 20th-century houses in the suburbs had been built on flat land. Planning and locating architectural objects like that seems to be a conventional way. However, we felt such a method not to be suitable for the beautiful land of China with an intricate undulation. For our concept, it was hence the best solution to build a wall without interfering with the original geographical feature, but instead enhancing it.
Therefore, the plan was to design the wall as a filter formed with bamboo. There are several reasons we chose bamboo as the primary material. First of all, we thought of the charm in the material’s weakness. The Great Wall built with solid stone and brick had been a device to sever the world of civilization and savage while the bamboo filter would, on the other hand, allow light and wind to pass through.
Also, the bamboo filter could work as a connection between the worlds. Historically been brought to Japan from China, the bamboo is a symbol of cultural interchange between those two countries. We intended this building to be a similar symbol of Cultural interchange.
– Kengo Kuma & Associates
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