This experimental project aims to explore the possibilities of spatial narratives. In traditional art exhibitions, space only plays the supporting role of dividing the functional spaces and setting off the atmosphere; while in this exhibition, the protagonists are no longer just the exhibits but the “walking” experience of the visitors, which is promoted and magnified to an equal position of the works on display. By creating a series of immersive experiences, architects use space as a language to guide people to perceive the meaning of “existence”. “Maze” is the prototype of the design: architects create a homogeneous yet multi-layered space within the limited exhibition hall by folding, intertwining, extending, and penetrating the visiting routes, as well as setting unpredictable entrances and exits. As a result, the visiting experience becomes an immersive journey with plenty of expectations and explorations. Meanwhile, the complexity and contradiction of the paces arouse a sense of misconception, which stimulates the visitors in the maze to pursue the hiding meaning on their own.

The exhibition is located at the Wind H Art Center designed by Dong Yugan. The building is designed to let the visitors feel as if they are touring a traditional Chinese garden: its interior spaces are interconnected spatially and visually. Visitors are often faced with multiple choices and even a sense of disorientation while switching between different rooms of the building, which may be distracting and make the entire exhibition experience fragmented. Therefore, the original space of the gallery is at odd with the purpose of creating “immersive experience” and “spatial narratives”. By controlling the entrances and exits of each exhibition hall, the architects reorganized the spatial sequence into a continuous closed visiting loop, where the origin also marks the destination. Within three main exhibition halls, the once free or dreary spaces are carefully re-planned into controlled but dramatic one-way visiting routes with one entrance and one exit each. The overall visiting experience is divided into three chaptered connected by one continuous story line.

▼整体流线及叙事 ©相也建筑 Overall Circulation and Story Line

Being an insider or outsider would generate entirely distinct perception of the same object or incident. This is the only ‘chapter ’in which the visitor could perceive the appearance of the space. An invisible surface extruded from an ascending exponential curve cut the maze horizontally, making the walls grow taller gradually from the entrance side to the deep inside. As a result, the ‘plan section ’of the maze is directly exposed to the visitors in the entrance lobby, which gives them a clear sense of the path they are about to take before they enter the maze.

▼第一章“感知沉没”轴测图 ©相也建筑 Axonometric of the 1st Chapter, “The Sunken Perception”