Sun Shed Renovation | Ekphrastics
Sun Shed Renovation by Ziye Wu

Sun Shed Renovation

Golden A' Design Award Winner 2020

Ziye Wu's Sun Shed Renovation presents a breathtaking interior view of a transformed agricultural greenhouse repurposed as an event venue, where the eye is immediately drawn to the extraordinary interplay between industrial steel framework overhead and the organic warmth of sculptural bamboo columns below. The composition employs a commanding central axis with a circular wooden stage serving as the gravitational focal point, its warm honey-toned timber surface contrasting magnificently against the surrounding sea of lavender plantings that carpet the foreground in soft violet-purple hues reminiscent of Provençal fields. The spatial architecture demonstrates masterful understanding of bilateral symmetry, with the bamboo columns arranged in rhythmic repetition along the perimeter, their elegant hyperbolic paraboloid forms spreading upward like inverted botanical specimens or the ribbed vaulting of Gothic cathedrals rendered in natural material. The chromatic palette achieves sophisticated harmony through the juxtaposition of cool steel blues and grays in the exposed truss system against warm ochres and raw sienna tones of the bamboo elements, while the lavender field introduces a complementary violet accent that anchors the lower register. Zenithal daylight floods through the transparent glass ceiling panels, creating an ethereal luminosity that activates every surface with soft, diffused illumination suggesting overcast conditions or the gentle light of early morning. The perspectival system employs strong one-point perspective with the central stage drawing all orthogonal lines toward a vanishing point at the rear wall, which features a dramatic starfield backdrop of twinkling lights creating an illusion of infinite depth. The textural vocabulary ranges from the industrial smoothness of steel members to the tactile linearity of bundled bamboo reeds to the soft organic mass of living lavender plants, establishing a rich material dialogue between manufactured precision and natural growth. White-draped banquet seating arranged in curved rows reinforces the amphitheatrical organization while contributing luminous accents that punctuate the middle ground.

The sun shed renovation starts and finishes in the countryside. The design concept stems from a rural scene: the blue sky, innocent fields, buzzing frogs, the fragrant air in the shade of the trees. It is a common middle-axis banquet space model, adjusted to the central stage as the basis of the circular radiation type banquet space. It is a attempt on adaptive reuse of village renovation.