Silver A' Design Award Winner 2025
YINPING YAO's Wulin Star Exhibition Hall presents a masterful orchestration of industrial architectural vocabulary, where the eye first encounters the rhythmic cadence of corrugated metal panels arranged in a continuous wall system that spans the composition from left to right, their horizontal striations creating a visual texture reminiscent of pleated fabric or precisely scored graphite. The spatial construction employs a compelling diagonal recession, with the wall plane angling dramatically from the foreground at right toward a vanishing point in the upper left, establishing a powerful one-point perspective that draws the viewer inexorably into the cavernous depth. Above this metal boundary, a magnificent exposed steel truss system unfolds like a geometric canopy, painted in pristine titanium white that contrasts eloquently with the weathered raw concrete columns punctuating the space at regular intervals. These massive vertical supports, bearing the patina of industrial heritage, rise from a polished concrete floor that mirrors the overhead structure with remarkable fidelity, creating a doubled architecture of reflection that expands the perceived volume exponentially. The chromatic palette operates within a sophisticated neutral range: cool grays of the corrugated panels, warm concrete taupes, brilliant whites of the structural framework, and the silvered luminosity of the reflective floor surface. Natural light enters from multiple sources, including clerestory glazing visible in the truss zone and what appears to be apertures between the wall panels, casting elongated parallelograms of warm golden illumination across the floor that animate the otherwise austere industrial vocabulary with temporal poetry. The mechanical systems remain proudly exposed, with white-painted ductwork threading through the truss geometry and a suspended track system curving gracefully along the ceiling plane, suggesting the space's exhibition function. The atmospheric quality balances industrial monumentality with contemplative stillness, evoking the adaptive reuse tradition that honors manufacturing heritage while reimagining purpose.
The Wulin Star Expo belongs to the historical protected buildings three and four of the Hangzhou Oxygen Plant Complex. It was utilized sustainable design concepts to maintain the structure of historical buildings and the details of factory buildings and transformed the idle space inside the old factory buildings into positive and dynamic spaces. The Wulin Star Expo has become a beloved cultural living room for citizens.