Device of Perception Centre culturel by Yuting Zhang

Device of Perception Centre culturel by Yuting Zhang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award de Bronze in Design d'Architecture, Bâtiment et Structure Competition Category.

BronzeArchitecture· 2022

Device of Perception Centre culturel

by Yuting Zhang

Client: Yuting Zhang

A' Design Award de Bronze Winner in Architecture Category

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The Design

About Device of Perception Centre culturel

Device of Perception est un centre culturel situé à Mexico, implanté entre un quartier historique de faible hauteur et un ensemble commercial de grande hauteur. Le centre couvre environ 4 500 mètres carrés et abrite un auditorium, un petit théâtre, un espace d'exposition, des bureaux, des locaux de stockage et un café. Une place d'entrée en contrebas sépare le bâtiment de l'avenue passante et sert de prolongement à la scène intérieure. Chaque niveau de la tour basse pivote d'un quart de tour, formant une galerie publique en spirale offrant des vues cadrées sur la ville. Le béton armé et l'acier autopatinable ont été employés.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Bronze

Device of Perception Centre culturel est lauréat de l'A' Design Award de Bronze, une reconnaissance hautement prestigieuse décernée à des designs remarquables qui se distinguent par leur créativité, leur ingéniosité et leur sagacité. Les lauréats Bronze sont des artefacts amplement habiles et d'une créativité frappante, qui authentifient la vaste expérience, l'imagination et l'ingéniosité de leurs concepteurs. Device of Perception Centre culturel est censé être un objet très estimé, admiré et chéri, remarquablement professionnel et innovant. Ce design lauréat de l'A' Design Award de Bronze intègre les meilleures pratiques de l'art, de la science, du design et de la technologie, et est excellent par son souci du détail. Device of Perception Centre culturel satisfait admirablement les besoins, touche les désirs, charme les sentiments et attire la curiosité.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The site is in between the low rise colonial historic quarter and the high rise commercial development, as an intersection node full of complexity in Mexico City. The cultural center is not only an exhibition space for Mexico City but could also be regarded as the device of perception. The perception is twofold in this project. One is that exterior plaza as the extension of the interior stage, the other is that a spiral path with various scenery frames as the narrative to understand the city.
Dimensions & Packaging: Approximate total area 4500 square meters, with main conference/lecture hall, small theater hall, exhibition space, offices, storage, cafe.
Tags: cultural center, gallery, theater, exhibition
Production Technology: The cultural center is constructed using reinforced concrete. Informed by “stereotomic” architecture, the board-marked concrete walls of the center are treated as a found object. Corten is another material been introduced to the project. The use of the weathering steel creates an immediate visual link between past, present, and future.
Design Challenge: The selected site is adjacent to Zarco Plaza, public plaza alongside the Church of San Judeas Tadeo, near the convent of San Hipolito, located on Reforma Avenue at Avenida Hidalgo, which is an intersection node full of complexity in Mexico City. The design challenges are how to use space to fully interprete the surrounding urban context and the rich cultural and history narratices.
Research: Explore how experimental miniature stage was used as a space in which objects, 2-‐dimensional drawings and 3-‐dimensional constructions of different scales could coexist in a seemingly unproblematic way, to see how the same spatial base was used to accommodate different scenarios and situations, just by moving props around, adding surfaces and changing backdrops.
Inspiration: Aldo Rossi's Project the Small Scientific Theatre from 1978 is taken as a starting point to reflect upon the relation between architecture and image, and between object/ prop and space/ stage. The theatrino models made for the project then have borrowed this primary idea from Aldo Rossi to explore how does the Zarco Plaza could be regarded as the extension of the stage of the auditorium. The definition of performers has been extended in the exploration.
Project Duration: 2017 in Mexico City
Operation Flow: The sunken entrance plaza of the cultural center creates a tranquil start of the narrative, separating the cultural center from the heavy traffic La Reforma Avenue. The lower ground floor surrounding the sunken plaza houses the art storage facilities and a cafe, maximizing publicly accessible space continues from the plaza into the lobby of the building.
Each floor of the short tower is twisted a quarter turn, which creates a large spiral public gallery as the extension of the interior exhibition space. The story of the city has been told through the switch-over between the interior gallery and different compositions of historical layers from the breaking points/openings in the cube of the spiral path. Two auditoriums have been embedded in this spiral discourse, with lectures, talks, debates, conferences, and film screenings conducted in front of the urban backdrop.
Team Members: Yuting Zhang
Image Credits: Yuting Zhang