The Sun River Art Center Flickers With Its Luminous Peaks

The Sun River Art Center is part of the architectural project called Flickering Peak led by Wutupia Lab. Located in Coffee Village, Wanning, Hainan the structure creates a stunning contrast against its natural backdrop of river and trees.

The client asked Wutopia Lab to design an art gallery that balances visual appeal with substantive architectural integrity. All these should be within the limits of an already completed basement and existing structural parameters. This means the design should not exceed the load limits of the original three buildings.

Thus, the buildings have semi-transparent white Ferrari membranes as roofing instead of aluminum panels to meet the load restrictions. Likewise, the studio drew from a similar past work involving “a pool and three mountains” for the final design of the Sun River Art Center. The team imagined the original three buildings as mountains and the artificial body of water placed before them as the sea.

This water extends into the building’s lobby. At night, the structure offers a stunning visual imagery of three luminous “mountains.” Likewise, the interiors and the translucent peaks transform with colorful lighting at night. Meanwhile, during the day, the Ferrari coverings in their varying levels of transparency create a flickering visual, hence the project’s name Flickering Peak.

The center building serves as the main building with the other two as reception and office spaces. Guests enter the center via a boardwalk over the artificial sea. Inside, indoor and outdoor spaces intertwine, featuring layered spaces designed to mimic the experience of mountain climbing. The Sun River Art Center has since become a cultural landmark in the area that symbolizes miracles and hope.

Images courtesy of  LIU Guowei/gooood.cn