Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
Referencing an icon of modernist architecture, the 1951′s Farnsworth House, this crisp, white detached house has been completed by Trace Architecture Office (TAO) who ‘stretched, looped and folded’ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s famous one-room chef-d’œuvre. As a result, the Beijing-based architects have achieved a ‘smaller building depth with better views, introversive courtyard space offering more privacy, getting closer to water and accessible roof as extension of landscape.’ Offering serene, panoramic views thanks to the translucent glass façade, Riverside Clubhouse is located in the city of Yancheng, in a northeastern Jiangsu province, China – homeland of this years’s Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, Wang Shu.
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
More about the project:
‘The clubhouse is located on one side of a river in Yancheng, surrounded by a park and sports field. The extended horizon, sky, water, island in river, and reed, these elements of the site define a tranquil, pure and poetic atmosphere. In such an environment, we think architecture must be a careful intervention to the site, to avoid ruining the original sense of place and meanwhile create the close contact with nature. Thus a glass building on riverside and in trees naturally comes to mind as beginning idea, to integrate visitor, architecture and landscape.
‘Responding to the horizontal feature of surrounding landscape and trees in site, the building is made into a linear and folded form. It zigzags and flows, sometimes approaching the ground, sometimes floating in the air. While inside it provides to visitors various views at different level and angle, it also gives an impression that architecture is touching the site in a very “light” form, thus creating a subtlety. The soft soil geo-condition of the site also makes this floating form structurally reasonable since slim columns on pile foundations support the building.’
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; photo by Yao Li
Riverside Clubhouse by Trace Architecture Office; site plan
view the Riverside Clubhouse project on Architonic
