A professor at the School of Architecture at Waterloo is racking up awards as a member of the design team for an innovative project in China.
David Correa, a design partner at architecture studio LLLab, worked with the team on a canopy and a group of pod-like pavilions mainly made of woven bamboo.
The project, Bamboo, Bamboo, Canopy and Pavilions, was named 2021 building of the year in the small building category by Dezeen, an influential architecture and design magazine.
A bamboo canopy runs along the Li River in China at the site of a dramatic light show. Photo by Arch-Exist
It was also recognized by ArchDaily for the Top Building of the Year award in the small scale and installlations category, collected a Golden Trezzinni Award for best implemented project of public building or facility, and was cited by The Plan in the special projects category.
A team from LLLab - which is based in Shanghai, China, with offices in Stuttgart, Germany and Porto, Portugal - designed the canopy and pavilions for the site of a light show along a river in the mountains of Yangshuo, China.
Bamboo was selected as the main building material to complement the natural features of the site, which is largely covered with bamboo groves.
“As a means to coincide with what is already there, the new architecture looked at borrowing the materiality of the bamboo, reconfiguring it to form new space,” LLLab said of the project.
“In doing so, this new space means not to contest. Instead it aims to augment, albeit very gently, the surrounding bamboo groves and hills.”
The project was also included in a recent CNN feature on sustainable bamboo buildings in Asia.
