A spiral ramp surrounds an arts centre in China.

A spiralling ramp guides visitors through the Tiangang Arts Center, a combined art gallery and hotel designed by Syn Architects in China’s Hebei Province.

The centre is located in the village of Tiangang, at the foot of the Taihang Mountains, next to a lake.

Its distinctive spiral shape, dubbed a “vortex” by the Beijing-based studio, was inspired by an existing semicircular structure on the site, extended with a steel-framed design to create a sweeping route ending in a roof terrace.

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Wrapped at its northeastern edge by a 14-room hotel, cafe, and restaurant, the building is organised to provide visitors with an “unfolding and shifting” perspective on the central exhibition hall as they walk around the ramp.

“As visitors enter the Art Centre at ground level and follow the curve’s path, their experience of the space changes constantly,” the practise explained.

“This type of experience, in which an instantaneous realisation occurs as a result of a cumulative process of passage through numerous levels,” it continued, “is analogous to the ‘epiphany’ mentioned in Buddhism.”

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“As visitors enter the Art Centre at ground level and follow the curve’s path, their experience of the space changes constantly,” the practise explained.

“This type of experience, in which an instantaneous realisation occurs as a result of a cumulative process of passage through numerous levels,” it continued, “is analogous to the ‘epiphany’ mentioned in Buddhism.”

Tree trunks inspired a “random” arrangement of white columns in the exhibition hall in a jungle or forest. These allow for the incorporation of temporary display walls.

A curved skylight and translucent polycarbonate walls bring light into this space while also lighting up the base of the centre’s exterior at night.

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The hotel block faces away from the public gallery on the northeast edge of this space, allowing rooms to open onto balconies with views of the surrounding landscape.

This block, which houses the bedrooms and a cafe, extends outwards into a glazed volume that houses a restaurant, with its southern facade shaded by diagonal wooden beams.

Internally, predominantly concrete finishes are softened by wood elements, such as hanging stanchions in the restaurant and wooden frames covered in stretched fabric on the bedroom ceilings.

The interior’s two primary materials, timber and concrete, unify the visual language of various functional spaces and establish a dialogue with the surrounding countryside and mountains visible through the windows, the practise explained.

Among Syn Architects’ other works is a wedding chapel near China’s Mount Tai that is topped by a semi-spherical “moon.”

In China, Shanghai-based studio Roarc Renew created the TaoCang Art Centre by slotting two brick corridors between two abandoned granaries.

Written By Tannu Sharma | Subscribe To Our Telegram Channel To Get Latest Updates And Don’t Forget To Follow Our Social Media Handles Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter. To Get the Latest Updates From Arco Unico