Device of Perception Centrum Culturale by Yuting Zhang

Device of Perception Centrum Culturale by Yuting Zhang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Praemium A' Design Award Aeneum in Architectura Competition Category.

AesArchitectura· 2022

Device of Perception Centrum Culturale

by Yuting Zhang

Client: Yuting Zhang

Praemium A' Design Award Aeneum Winner in Architectura Category

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The Design

About Device of Perception Centrum Culturale

Instrumentum Perceptionis est centrum culturale in urbe Mexicana situm, inter regionem historicam humilem et aedificia commercialia alta collocatum. Centrum circiter 4500 metra quadrata tegit et aulam ad conferentias, theatrum parvum, spatium ad exhibitiones, officia, cellas ad res reponendas, et cauponam continet. Area ingressus depressa aedificium ab avenue frequentata separat et velut extensio scaenae interioris munus praestat. Quaeque tabulatum turris brevis quarta parte conversum est, ita ut galeria publica spiralis formetur, cum prospectibus urbis quasi in tabulis inclusis. Concretum ferro firmatum et chalybs aeri exposito, qui rubiginem naturaliter contrahit, in aedificatione adhibentur.

The Recognition

About the Praemium A' Design Award Aeneum

Device of Perception Centrum Culturale victor est Praemii A' Design Award Aeneum, honoris multum aestimati formis egregiis, creandi ingenio, sollertia et acumine insignibus dati. Victores Aenei opera perita et mire creandi sunt, quae experientiam, imaginationem et solertiam auctorum suorum confirmant. Exspectatur Device of Perception Centrum Culturale rem multum aestimatam, admiratam et carissimam, notabiliter professionalem et novam fore. Haec forma Aeneo victa optimas consuetudines artis, scientiae, formandi rationis et technologiae amplectitur et in cura minutiarum excellit. Device of Perception Centrum Culturale necessitates egregie explet, cupiditates tangit, sensus capit et curiositatem allicit.

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