Structure complete!
July 2006: " Yunnans rainy season has now started dramatic thunderstorms and sudden columns of rain, angry piles of clouds, and villages spotlighted in golden sunlight on high ridges. In the midst of the dramatic weather we are happpy to announce that the building of our Lashihai Haidong Village Community Exhibition Center, has been underway since April 2006. The Haidong Community Exhibition Center is embedded into the courtyard of the Mu Kun family. "
Abutting the main road running from Lijiang to Lhasa, the new building will be open to the community and feature a variety of programming with local and international artists.The new building spans both very specific local conditions, and the widely international contemporary art world. Kunming based architect Lu Biao designed the building pro bono, after a research phase in which he collaborated with American architect Steven Caputo, as well as architecture students from Kunming and Beijing. The building uses local timber-frame construction and glass-and-steel construction side by side. It is being built almost entirely by local Naxi people living within walking distance of the construction site. The building incorporates passive solar energy design, a natural graywater filtration system, solar-heated hot water, and biogas fuel for cooking.
The building is designed as a public multipurpose space for the production and presentation of Lijiang Studios projects, as well as anything interesting to or generated by the community. It is specifically designed for children and elderly people: a bench facing the road, getting early morning easterly sun, is a congregating point for older people who like to watch goings-on, and a slide leading into a sand-pit starts right in the middle of exhibition space. The building itself will be finished the first week of August, and the opening event will be August 19. With volunteer work, local materials and labor, and an outstanding project manager, this extraordinary building is coming in exactly on budget. Even as such, it is not fully funded. There is a very meaningful, and tax-deductible opportunity to support this innovative project.
