Suzhou
By himmelzimmer
An intricate yet simple and effective façade design to enclose and identify the massive Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre.
The scheme comprises over 1.5km of façade enclosing the centre. The base building, designed by Paul Andreu, houses opera halls, cinemas, cultural centre facilities, galleries, gardens and all manner of support infrastructure.
The outer screen is continuous; a smoothly curves skin of large interlocking hexagonal panels. Each panel is clad in waterjet cut aluminium tiles which are designed with two orders of pattern: an interlocking grid of three hexagons, and a free-flowing calligraphic design to create an intricate depth in light, shade and scale. The inner weather skin is primarily a double glazed wall, but is also a simple metal clad wall in front of black box theatres and service zones.
Professionals used in
Suzhou
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himmelzimmer
About the
Professional
himmelzimmer is an architectural design practice in Melbourne dedicated to investigating an architecture that evolves from a continuous dialogue of imaginative and practical thinking.
As a studio we need to be able to define what building/design we aspire to the most:
For us this is ‘a room in the sky’, a ‘himmelzimmer’.
From its open window we can see the endless sky encouraging us that our ideas should be dream-like without boundaries. With its window closed we can focus on the work on our desk in front of us, the technical delivery of our ideas.
All our designs evolve from the dialogue of these two perspectives which are both essential in the delivery of well-executed buildings that inspire and transcend the ordinary.
Our work is at its most successful where our window to the world is in a constant state of in-between, where it is simultaneously closed and open.
We started in 2003 as studio505.
Following studio505’s closure in 2016 we are continuing our work as himmelzimmer
- Year founded2016
- ArchiPro Member since2023
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