Riverside Academy & Epigraphy Museum

Riverside Academy & Epigraphy Museum

Tanghua Architect & Associates CO., Ltd

Riverside Academy & Epigraphy Museum is located at the foot of Tianziling Mountain, the western suburbs of Shaoguan, Guangdong. Facing a ribbon of water, the project site provides an excellent sight of the natural landscape. To prevent the lush vegetation and complex topography being bothered, we seek to design architecture that intervening environment the least possible. Thus, we connect two selected points between the waterfront and the mountain forest with the building volume, perpendicularly to the shoreline. Without damaging any of the natural surroundings, the slender building volume appears to be a "plant" that stretches to the waterfront. The atrium is hollowed out from the center of the building, which, make it an extension of the outside landscape and even a medium for the inside and outside space to communicate.It marries the virtual space, the landscape, and the physical space as traditional“mortise and tenon”. Moreover, the sunken courtyard further reinforces this spatial complementarity. The traditional“mortise and tenon” relation exists not only in different parts of the space, but also in the association of different materials. The brick and concrete, two kinds of distinctive fabric, connects and transits smoothly in the façade. In addition, the architecture, facing the water,isdesigned to be gradually narrowing to look slimmer. The design weakens the sense of building volume, and further, makes the architecture in harmony with the natural surroundings.