Header: Courtesy of ZIAD
Nanhu Square’s new nocturnal lighting design, by Zhejiang Province Institute of Architectural Design and Research Co. (ZIAD), is part of a unique architectural project that reinterprets and celebrates Chinese culture through cutting-edge lighting technology. The design has recently won the “Exterior Architectural Illumination” category at the LIT Lighting Design Awards.
Inspiration and vision
The designers were inspired by Confucian cosmology and used lighting to turn the South Lake complex into a readable story after dark. You see that the idea is written right on the structure: the façade becomes a programmable surface where excerpts from the Analects appear as star-like constellations across the lake; the spiral underground hall uses 128 prismatic glass bricks with a light choreography tied to the “Heaven-Round-Earth-Square” model; and the hydraulic water-curtain “theatre” adds holographic projections that bring in Song-dynasty poetry imagery, with Xin Qiji’s verses named as part of what appears in the misty scenes.
The unconventional design
The structure is described as “horizontally extended and undulating”, intended to echo Quzhou’s landscape of mountains and water. The roof forms are sloped and interlaced, shaping a “valley opening” of sorts that connects a green walkway with the historic city. Forming the façade are two inclined volumes whose silhouette resembles a ceremonial bow or bundled bamboo scrolls. This surface is the principal lighting medium, which means that it is not only lit but is what actually conveys the lighting show after dark.
The envelope is wrapped in 30,000 parametrically designed perforated aluminium panels, which, in daylight, create a visual illusion of rippling water – a thoughtful detail that connects the structure to the Qianjiang River. After dark, 8,000 programmable LEDs turn that same façade into what the designers call a “celestial library”. In simple terms, parts of the classical text are broken down into small points of light, laid out like constellations, and the lake helps carry them by reflecting the pattern. The point is that the building doesn’t need a different skin for day and night: the perforated metal panels allow for a soft, rippling surface in daylight and then a coded, text-based display once it gets dark.
Inside the complex, the main feature is an 18-metre-high hydraulic “theatre” that creates a vertical curtain of water, running at 5 cubic metres per second. That sheet of water is then used like a projection surface: holographic projection is combined with Song-dynasty poetry imagery, with Xin Qiji’s verses appearing within misty scenes.
Celebrating culture
Underground, three subterranean cultural spaces complete the cultural complex. There are museum galleries that use AR to reconstruct the lineage of the Kong clan’s southern branch, a spiral exhibition hall built around 128 prismatic glass bricks, and a land-art zone, described as a bridge between contemporary creation and local cultural memory.
Sustainability
On the sustainability side, the designers ensured the system would use less energy by avoiding the usual approach of keeping everything brightly lit all night. Instead, they link a 43% reduction in energy use (compared to “conventional systems”) to two moves: building rammed-earth textures into the parametric metal components, and lighting up the façade through programmed content instead of static light.
Project Information
Lighting Design Company: Zhejiang Province Institute of Architectural Design and Research Co., Ltd. (ZIAD)
Lead Designer: Weikai Zhu
Other Designers: Jun Zheng, Peng Zhou, Xin Ye, Qi Lu, Jia Chen, Hongliang Wang, and Linyue Shen
Architecture Company: Zhejiang Province Institute of Architectural Design and Research Co., Ltd. (ZIAD)
Completion Date: December, 2023
Project Location: Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province
