The beauty of chance
Impression Sanjie Liu in Yizhou
IILab.
Liu Sanjie
Liu Sanjie was a simple girl and a very talented singer who fought with authorities almost 1,000 years ago. On the run, she and her lover turned into larches, which allowed them to stay together forever. So much for the legend.
Liu Sanjie’s story has been performed since 2004 with more than 600 performers in the incredible nature of the southern Chinese city of Yizhou. The spectacle is called “Impression Sanjie Liu” and is quite rightly enormously successful. The 10,000 spectator natural stage is considered the largest in the world.
Now, it has been upgraded.
Landsape
The Impression Sanjie Liu, Yangshuo, Guilin is located in one of the most dramatic landscapes in China. Endless greenery surrounds the site filling space between large karst towers of rock. With a landscape so grand any moves to dismiss it, let alone compete would make little sense. With this understanding it was decided that the natural elements themselves would form the premise for what architecture would inhabit the site, one element in particular, bamboo.
Plot
The Impression Sanjie Liu is already well established, now in its 15th year of operation. Currently, the night show entertains guests in two areas, one at either end of the island site. The entry and pagoda where guests arrive, and the main stage, perched at the bank of the Li river at the other end.
Between these two points little interaction takes place. IILab. have changed this in a wonderful way.
Structure
The first, woven bamboo lantern structures, scattered where guests circulate, whose purpose is to guide and intrigue. Then the other, a stretch of woven canopy amongst clusters of bamboo, providing area to walk sheltered from regular rainfall.
When entering the site, lanterns small in stature line along the pathway cast out signals of dappled light. As visitors travel further the once small lanterns become drastically larger to a point where the guests can find themselves able to walk inside. The makeup of the lanterns remains sincere, with a structure of bamboo lengths encased in lashed bamboo either side.
The beauty of coincidence
On closer inspection one can get a sense of the random beauty that can only be created when something is truly constructed by hand.
The slightly dark appearance of bamboo framing shows markings of how it is bowed with fire to create the curved lantern silhouette. Over this, piece by piece, teams of local craftsman have threaded numerous stripes of bamboo in an unintentional pattern that requires no glues or nails to hold its shape.
This method of production is a showcase of intricacy, clearly shaped by the hands of people and their intuition of beauty.
Lanterns
In the daylight, the lanterns appear solid, the yellow of the shell in compliment with the green surrounding. Come night the personality of the lantern shifts from something more unyielding to a porous shell.
Supported by the columns in a maze of tubes, the structure of the canopy while seen doesn’t look out of place. The hand-woven layer obscures what is in front and what lays behind. Stretching 140m from where you stand the woven ceiling takes on a shape of an inverted landscape, undulating between different levels of surfaces.
Moments of performance
In acknowledgment to the theatrical spirit of the Impression Sanjie Liu, moments of performance make its way into many parts of the design: The hand weaving, bamboo playing off the tension of one another.
The topography of the canopy ceiling dancing between columns of bamboo as if unsupported. Even the way guests are intended to move from lantern to lantern, in a narrative of interaction. Together these subtle hints encourage a particular frame of mind, readying the guest for the main feature.
Drama, baby.
We did this.
Project data
Architect
llLab.
Hanxiao Liu, Henry D’Ath, Lexian Hu, Alyssa Tang, Chaoran Fan, Luis Ricardo, David Correa
Client
Impression Sanjie Liu
Team
Project Management Team:
GCPS Interior Decoration Finishing Ltd.
Lihua Mi, Dalin Chai, Hao Zhang, Guoyang Wan
Project Construction Team:
Yinghong Shao, Yanru Dong, Yingming Shao
Structural Design:
LaLu Partners Structure Consulting
Address
Pantao Rd, Yangshuo County
Guilin, Guangxi
China
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