Inspired by the ancient rock paintings that had been deeply etched in between the mountain pass and leapt through five thousand years since the Stone Age, the design team proposed a scheme that utilizes the height difference and inserts the entire architecture into the original landform, which resulted in an intellectual intervene with appropriate scale, volume and composition, communicating as a spiritual connection between contemporary people and the remains of ancient art and its site.
The Hill of the Buddha in Sapporo, Japan, is another project that strongly regards to the landscape scale and celebrates the solemnity of the subject and its location, which is also an example of intensifying the visitors’ spiritual encounter.
In the Projects section, we look at a couple of small scaled buildings in Europe, including a single, rigorous pavilion structure in Brussels, the Highgate House in London and a private studio in Berlin by David Chipperfield Architects, which is transformed from a boat-house built in 1970.
This issue also features a review on the Milanese maestro Marco Zanuso’s work as a celebration of the centenary of his birth, in which we can see how this contemporary architect explored elements and techniques with a spirit of openness towards all that was innovative.