‘institute of optimistic architectures’ by wai architecture, view at day entrance as the building façade turns opaque during the hours of the day, and becomes a ‘lantern’ during the night

wai architecture think tank has completed a study for an architecture, urbanism and spatial politics laboratory in the center of beijing. this educational center has been developed based on the principles of open learning and cross-disciplinarity teaching as the building has been arranged in a sequence of open spaces and sloping floors that come together to form a continuous loop of learning experiences. the institute of optimistic architecture is conceived as an avant-garde institution for the education of environmental and spatial design.

the building includes workshops, lecture and performance halls, libraries, printing rooms, leisure spaces in addition to a bookshop, exhibition spaces and cafeteria space. rather than an over exertion of effort on the redundant futility of contemporary architectural form, the building maintains a level of neutrality in the construction of its exterior, while the interior acts as a catalyst of spatial dynamism and intellectual exchange.

the building is designed based on the five points of a contemporary architecture: 1. continuous plan the plan establishes the limits of the circulation in a building. with the aim of enhancing interrelation between spaces, and creating a continuous exchange between programs, the floor slabs of the building are connected to each other by means of sloping floors that act like lecture and performance halls, workshops and circulation space. 2. free section by distorting the building not in plan, but in section, a new richness of spatial experiences is achieved. what used to be the regime of the generic space because of the repetition of equidistant slabs now becomes a pluralistic assembly of zones of varying spatial potentials. 3. free structure advancements in engineering allow for the distribution of the structure not only to create optimum spaces, but also to divide and delimit, and to support both the free section and the continuous plan. 4. free space modern architecture inherited the free horizontal plan from an industrial era focused on mass production. in an era more concerned with creativity and dynamism, contemporary architecture integrates the diagonal slab to the free plan; creating spaces that not only avoid the generic monotony now part of every office building but that enhances new visual and physical connections between spaces that otherwise wouldn’t have any relationship. 5. wall as fenestration with more advanced and efficient translucent materials available, a new dialectic can be achieved between the building and its surroundings, as it becomes a possibility to “frame” the views to the context without sacrificing the privacy of the building’s interior.

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 2 view at day back alley

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 3 view at night

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 4 lecture and performance hall

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 5 workshop and library

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 6 model lecture and performance hall

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 7 model lobby

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 8 model exhibition

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 9 model exhibition

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 10 sections as cadavre exquis

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 11 inverted axon

wai architecture: institute of optimistic architectures - 12 sectional axon

date: 2011-12 type: education status: study study team: nathalie frankowski, cruz garcia, wu dang shen location: beijing, china

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