Beijing World Jewelry Expo
Beijing, China
The Beijing World Jewelry Expo project seeks to produce a fluid formal language that diminishes the monumental scale of the building while preserving intimate spatial moments of entry, public gathering, and visibility. A building housing 400,000 square meters of retail program, the project covers four Beijing city blocks - comparatively, able to envelop the footprint of two Bird's Nest stadiums. The building is designed to optimize the economy of ruled surface geometry and long span construction systems.
The primary manufactured gem quarried in China is the Jade stone. Jade is widely known and valued for it's rich coloration, light refraction, and depth. Conceptually, the building appropriates the natural hydrological erosion of stone over the course of centuries. This natural process leaves fluvial marks scribed within the surrounding walls. The building form incorporates the geometric language of sweeping edge profiles and material transitions parallel to those found in naturally eroded examples.
