Lantern is a temporary outdoor theater built as part of a national bamboo architecture competition in Anji, China. This experimental structure aims to combine the uncertainty and irregularities of materials with precise geometries. The work is one of the outcomes of a summer workshop organized by the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong, where the brief challenged participants to develop and reconstruct practices of this ancient material while considering sustaining and supporting local artisans and women.
The form of the building is carefully tailored to the context, a sunken amphitheater on an island surrounded by views of water and mountains. The theater structure is composed of circular columns that gradually expand and contract in spacing to obscure or reveal the surrounding landscape. The colonnade blurs the boundaries between performance space and water, providing an ever-changing spatial experience.
This effect is enhanced by a top “eye” that allows light to inscribe time in the structure as it travels through the space, constantly changing the theater’s internal atmosphere throughout the day.
During the fabrication process, a series of precise molds—steel rings at the round holes, square steel frames at the eaves, and panels embedded in the concrete foundation at the base of the structure—defined the theater’s form. These elements provide the frame and formwork, which are then crafted by local craftsmen, who choose to straighten in place or steam-bend them as needed, and ultimately connect each piece of bamboo to the frame. During this process, the structure evolves intuitively, creating constraints between the properties of the material and the tools used to shape it.
In this way, the theater applies a construction method that transcends rather than replaces craftsmanship, enabling spatial expression while stimulating the ability of traditional craftsmen to realize complex new forms.
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