ME3 Art Center

CPLUS

• Architects

Connecting the Primitive to the Future

Located in Yangshuo, Guangxi, the ME3 Art Center is a leisure facility with exhibition, hospitality, catering and retail functions. Facing the mountainous landscape and backed by the rural villages, the main body of the building is hidden on a hillside in the ME3 Yangshuo International Sports Leisure Resort. As a place where culture and nature coexist, it provides visitors with diversified experiences.

Inspired by local karst landscapes and stilt houses, the concept is based on the idea of “Meeting the Scenery in the Cave”, and tries to evoke people's deepest eternal pursuit of primitive nature through the fusion of the architecture and the site.

Simulation of Natural Caves

The ME3 Art Center is like a huge natural cave. Its facade and roof are dotted with holes of different sizes, and the interplay of light and shadow creates a mysterious atmosphere. A large number of open, continuous and flowing gray spaces break the boundaries of traditional functional zoning, allowing people to use these spaces flexibly according to their own needs.

The facility is open and inclusive, permitting natural elements such as wind, light and water to pass through the holes, creating a natural transition to the outside climate. The gray spaces serve as a buffer between inside and outside, acting like a large-scale shading system, effectively responding to the humid and hot climate characteristics of the region and reducing the reliance on artificial equipment, thus lowering energy consumption. The design encourages visitors to come out of the enclosed space and enjoy the outdoors. At the same time, it offers habitat for birds, insects and other wildlife, making the entire structure a place where people and nature live in harmony.

The renewable exposed concrete reveals its raw texture after pouring. And the rough texture of the surface blurs the boundary between nature and man-made. The building exudes the aura of an ancient relic, yet seems to be a spaceship from the future, constructing a marvelous dialogue across time and space.

Hiding in the Mountains

Architecture begins with nature, returns to nature, and eventually becomes part of the landscape with nature.

https://archello.com/story/150405/attachments/drawings/6 — Caption

https://archello.com/story/150405/attachments/drawings/10 — Caption

The planted roof of the ME3 Art Center is slightly sloped and naturally connected to the hilltop ground. When viewed from the village behind, the building is almost invisible to the environment, maximizing the original appearance of the landscape and minimizing ecological disturbance.

Visitors take a cable car up the mountain and enter the facility through the entrance at the roof deck, where they begin a unique “downhill” journey. As the mountain gently descends, platforms of different heights intertwine with each other, forming a three-dimensional and rich activity scene. In the process of traveling, the change of space levels and the experience of viewing from multiple angles make people gradually become one with nature in the process of exploration.

Finally, visitors come to the platform of the Art Center facing the cedar forest and the lake. Standing here, the huge opening on the east side of the building looks like a picture frame, transforming the spectacular karst scenery in the distance into a landscape painting that unfolds in front of eyes.