UAO design's translucent Wuhan Tiandi market opens to the sky in China

WUHAN TIANDI MARKET BY UAO DESIGN OPENS IN CHINA

Sited not far from the Yangtze River and Hankou Beach in China, surrounded by camphor and French plane trees, the Wuhan Tiandi is a temporary market that exemplifies light architecture. From the river surface to the Xintiandi commercial street, the construction site happens to be on a node of significant change, from low to high. Responding to the existing conditions, local studio UAO design completed the orange-hued structure with a wide bottom shape that gradually narrows upward, creating a kind of roof opening that allows natural light to pour down on the market space, with glimpses of the lush greenery to be enjoyed. Keeping with that sense of porosity is the use of translucent cloth that gently drapes down over the architecture with prefabricated features, allowing it to stand lightly on the site.

A LIGHT ARCHITECTURAL SPACE WITH MINIMAL IMPACT

The final form of the Wuhan Tiandi Market by UAO Design ultimately creates a ‘canopy’ space, reflecting an atmosphere of familiarity. Material-wise, the architectural team combined scaffolding, trusses, sunlight panels, grid cloth, and other translucent or lightweight materials, presenting a structure that is light, transparent, inviting, and soft. ‘The scaffolding used in the main structure and the prefabricated trusses used to build the shops are rented. It is worth mentioning that they as well as the sunlight panels are reusable materials, while the cables and LED strips needed for construction can also be partially recycled. Owing to being environmentally sustainable, the 40-day market minimizes the disturbance to the site and the ecological environment,’ writes UAO Design.

Complementing the main structure is a pool arranged in the middle of the scaffolding, on the middle of which the sky over the opening evokes the courtyard of the historical buildings in Wuhan. An inflatable white figurine, dubbed ‘the diver’, sits on the roof of the pool, providing a visual focus for the block. Lastly, in the middle of the market, 12 bamboo beds are set up by UAO Design. ‘The element of the bamboo bed is to lead visitors 30 years back, after entering the space under the canopy, [an invitation to] ‘DIVE IN SUMMER!‘ concludes the architecture studio.

Project info:

Name: Wuhan Tiandi ‘DIVE IN SUMMER’

Location: Xintiandi Square, Wuhan, China

Architect: UAO Design

Chief designer: Li Tao

Design team: Fu Yu, Kong Fanyi, Wan Xue, Long Kecheng, Chen Xinwei

Construction team: Fan Zhonggen team (Hao Yinge, Huang Honggao, etc.), Yang Fan team,

UAO team (Fu Yu, Kong Fanyi, Wan Xue, Long Kecheng, Shen Jianxia, Xiao Jian, Hu Bingsheng,

Zhang Jieming, Li Long, Tan Ping, Dong Hao, Huang Mingchao, Qin Ying, Huang Minkun, Lu Zhou,

Mei Ye, Lin Jing, Zhang Kun, Liu Xiaoling, Interns-Sima Xiaotian/Chen Zhuoya/Yu Wenxi)

Photographers: Naturespace建筑摄影, Arch-Inbetween / Zhao Yilong

Videographer: STRAY BEAR

Total area: 816 sqm

Design period: May – July 2023

Construction period: July 23 – July 28, 2023

Presentation period: July 28 – Sep 10, 2023

Main materials: sunshine board, grid cloth, orange sponge, orange floating floor