A spiralling ramp creates an unfolding, experiential route for visitors through the Tiangang Arts Center, a combined art gallery and hotel in China's Hebei Province designed by Syn Architects.
The centre is located in the village of Tiangang, next to a lake at the foot of the Taihang Mountains.
Tiangang Art Center is a geometric building that was designed by Syn Architects
Its distinctive spiral shape, described by the Beijing-based studio as a "vortex", was informed by an existing semicircular building on the site, which has been extended with a steel-framed structure to create a sweeping route that culminates in a roof terrace.
Wrapped by a 14-room hotel, cafe and restaurant at its northeastern edge, the building has been organised to give visitors an "unfolding and shifting" perspective on the central exhibition hall as they walk around the ramp. The arts centre is surrounded by a large swirling ramp
"As visitors arrive at the Art Centre at ground level and follow the path of the curve, their experience of the space is constantly changing," said the practice.
"This type of experience, where an instantaneous realisation is made following an accumulated process of passage through many levels, is analogous to the 'epiphany' spoken of in Buddhism," it continued.
The swirling exterior ramp leads to an open-air theatre on the roof
The spiral wraps around a circular exhibition hall, and rises to become the roof of the hotel block before e...