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The design borrows from the architectural prototype of “pagoda”, creating a hollow Buddha pagoda in the center of the hall as the main carrier for a vertical exhibition of wood Buddha statues. Appearing oval in floor plan, the pagoda has seven layers that grow narrower upwards to meet at the square ceiling of the hall. The interior of the pagoda borrows the imagery of Mandala, a consecrated area where all the sages and men of virtues are brought together and a symbol of universe in Buddhism.
The Wood Buddha Statue Museum is located at Ji Xin Monastery in Zushan Scenic Area of QinHuang dao City. With a history dating back to the Song dynasty (960-1279), the temple nestles half way up the mountain, overlooking the city and Bohai Sea like a hermit. As a major tourist spot of Zushan Scenic Area, the existing temple was rebuilt on its original site in 2002. Facing eastwards, the temple complex unfolds across the mountain terrain, forming a spatial layout in three courtyards. The museum is located at the back courtyard. As visitors navigate through a corridor of the temple’s main hall, they will see three halls standing on top of a high platform: the Guanxin Hall, the Hall of Medicine Buddha and the Hall of Amitabha Buddha, which are venues for the wood Buddha statue museum.
The camphor wood Buddha statues are major exhibits of the museum. They hold an intriguing origin story as they were originally commissioned from Dongyang, Zhejiang Province by a Japanese collector. Over the course of several decades, these statues changed hands among different owners in Japan until the client decided to buy them back to China. After careful consideration, he decided to find them a new home at Ji Xin Monastery. Therefore, the design of the Buddha statue museum was an effective integration and reuse of the existing cultural and physical resources.
Drawing inspiration from religious symbols like Mandala and Bodobudur, the design interprets the spiritual essence of Buddha culture and art in a contemporary and innovative way. To highlight a sense of centrality and suspension, the design adopts a beam string structure and ornaments such as lotus-shaped pedestals, to create a visual effect of ripples spreading within the pagoda. To control the amount of natural light entering the building, a translucent film with a transmittance of 9% is applied to the exterior glass surfaces. The pagoda's structural beauty is accentuated through the use of concealed lighting, which illuminates the building's form. At the dome of the pagoda, three layers of lighting troughs are installed, with each layer gradually transitioning to a lighter color. This arrangement creates an upward transition of lighting effect. The side halls in the museum are designated as Sutra Halls, playing a crucial role in the museum's public education activities. The design capitalizes on the height of these halls, approximately 11 meters, by installing luminous metal boards adorned with inscribed sutras that hang around the hall and reach close to the ceiling. The use of mirror-surfaced materials creates an elevated ambience within the space, and imbues it with an otherworldly, futuristic sense of art. Additionally, the walls are constructed with sound-absorbing panels, optimizing the lighting and audio conditions of the lecture hall.
The museum design seamlessly combines various art forms, such as interior design, display, sculpture, visual art, and landscape, to create a comprehensive work of art. Drawing inspiration from religious symbols like Mandala and Bodobudur, the design interprets the spiritual essence of Buddha culture and art in a contemporary and innovative way. It aims to provide visitors with an immersive meditative experience, inviting them to explore their inner world while visiting around the space.
Established in 2010 and based in 798 Art Zone, Beijing, ARCHSTUDIO advocates maintaining a harmonious balance among human, nature, history and commerce in design practices, pursues the essence and true way of design, controls the whole process from concept to construction, and strives to create quality and emotional spatial environment that is based on the contemporary era and embraces future. Currently, the Studio mainly focuses on architectural design in natural context, urban architecture renovation & transformation, and upgrade of consumption space, etc.
Space is an aggregation of various relationships. During design practices, ARCHSTUDIO insists on the principle of "design of relationships", analyzes reality of uncertainties, and coordinates relations between the large and small, exterior and interior, the new and old, the artificial and natural, etc.
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