https://www.architecturalrecord.com/rss/2947-dna-design-and-architecture en-us As the principal of beijing-based DnA_Design and architecture, Xu Tiantian is one of the few women to head an architectural practice in China."

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/14205 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/14205-design-vanguard-2009-dna-design-and-architecture Completed last year, the Songzhuang Artist Residences are located in one of China’s best-known artist enclaves, on the eastern outskirts of Beijing. Its 20 stacked units are composed of 20-foot-tall concrete boxes housing studio spaces and slightly irregular, 10-foot-tall volumes for living areas. Photo © Iwan Baan Photo © Iwan Baan Photo © Iwan Baan Photo © Iwan Baan For the forthcoming town center of Baixi, a new resort area being built in the mountainous Changbaishan National Park near the North Korean border, Xu is creating an entertainment hub of faceted, concrete pavilions and a spa and aquatic center hovering above outdoor pools like an exploded bridge. A third element, a towering information center clad in wood, will offer multiple views from its zigzagging ramps and platforms while evoking a directional signpost. Photo courtesy DnA Design and Architecture   Rendering courtesy DnA Design and Architecture Rendering courtesy DnA Design and Architecture For the Xiaopu Culture Center, in Beijing’s Songzhuang art district, Xu was presented with an irregular corner lot that formerly served industrial purposes. In negotiating the awkward site with the project’s program, Xu took inspiration from tangrams, traditional Chinese puzzles by which players form any number of complicated shapes using a standard set of seven geometric pieces. Unveiled in 2007, the resulting structures form an interlocking composition of voids, courtyards, and corrugated-metal-clad volumes housing galleries, five artist-residency studios, and other spaces. Photo © Zhou Ruogu/Savoye Photography Photo © Zhou Ruogu/Savoye Photography Photo © Zhou Ruogu/Savoye Photography Image courtesy DnA Design and Architecture Photo © Zhou Ruogu/Savoye Photography Anchoring a new civic center in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, the Ordos Art Museum was conceived as one long, uninterrupted room. Located near Ordos 100, the well-publicized project of 100 villas designed by as many experimental architects, its twisting and lifting form recalls a desert viper winding across the surrounding dunes. Clad in local blue slate, the building, which was completed in 2007, houses 29,000 square feet of exhibition and research spaces punctuated by openings offering natural light and views. Photo © Zhou Ruogu/Savoye Photography Photo © Zhou Ruogu/Savoye Photography Photo © Zhou Ruogu/Savoye Photography Scheduled to open next year, the Xixi Leisure Center in Hangzhou is part of an arts and culture complex comprising a dozen buildings by leading Chinese architects. Xu looked to the area’s natural landscape to create a wetland-inspired scheme of spa rooms, roof terraces, and sunken swimming and bathing pools. All are housed within a multilevel structure of overlapping circular discs that create the impression of walking among water lillies floating on a pond. Rendering courtesy DnA Design and Architecture Rendering courtesy DnA Design and Architecture