China 2021Yangtze River Delta Institute of Physics
The office of the Institute of Physics was built in Liyang City, Jiangsu Province, which is situated to the west of Taihu Lake and is blessed with nature. Unlike the hustle and bustle of the city, this rich natural environment offers an opportunity for more open dialogues.
With a low height and horizontal layout, the building shape shifts along the shore of lake, creating an environment in which water and greenery can be enjoyed from anywhere in the facility. Functions such as cafés and open lecture spaces are distributed in the corners to serve as nodes for internal circulation. The floor plan adopts a central corridor type with laboratories on both sides, leaving a spacious zone in between. By expanding the width of the hallway to 20m~30m, this layout provides an extensive communal area where research contents and equipment can be displayed. This free area promotes communication between researchers with a diagonal void forming a transversal space. The three entrances puncture the building massing and create visual connection with Mt. Longpan and the lake that symbolize the region. The free arrival area without any walls breaks away from the conventional image of a walled-up, insular research institute.
On the façade, long aluminum plates with wood grain twist to form a wave-like effect, giving the building exterior a dynamic rhythm. This façade design is a tribute to string theory from quantum mechanics.
