#HTE

If you ever visit an artist’s home, you should probably prepare yourself for an alternate version of normal. No exceptions are made for today’s residential highlight. Wutopia Lab’s Plain House in Shanghai, China is artist, Li Bin’s own nest of artistic flare and curiosity. From glazed corner windows to moulded façade details, this home is a canvas of eclectic spaces where daylight dances on the walls and fuels artistic inspiration.

Renovating two existing buildings on site, Wutopia Lab were commissioned to transform one building into Li Bin’s new home and the other into his own personal museum. Focusing on the house for today, it’s first floor is composed of two large storage spaces for Li Bin’s work as well as a garage, tearoom and an open plan living/dining/kitchen space. On the second floor, there is his and hers bedrooms, a study, a work balcony and an entry to an epic bridge that connects the museum to the house.

Lit by an array of skylights and windows, the house’s impressive lighting narrative culminates in two areas. Firstly, the house revolves around a light-core that operates as a kind of shrine to daylight. Here, Li and his guests can experience the atmospheric and almost sacred qualities of light bouncing off the blue-painted walls. Whilst in the living room, light is celebrated differently, water-falling over the red painted walls from a glazed corner window.

Externally, the house performs on a different level. The building’s skin is studded a pretty unusual leaf pattern mould, whilst a bizarre fluorite skirt wraps the base of the house, making it shimmer and shine in the direct sunlight. Redeeming these pretty strange external design moves, a spectacularly curved bridge connects the two buildings. Clad in non-galvanised steel that eroded to a yellowy orange colour, the bridge was then painted with a sealant, deepening the rich rusty patina. It’s one pretty seductive bridge.

Basking in this project’s total love for natural light, Plain House proves that a seemingly simple spatial layout can be an ultimate backdrop for the theatric nature of daylight. Put it there Wutopia Lab. We love it!

[Images courtesy of Wutopia Lab. Photography by CreatAR images, CHEN Hao & SU Shengliang.]

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