Embracing a new generation of contemporary artists, Chengdu gallery Suiyue Art is designed to integrate with the city.

Key features

Visitors enter Suiyue Art through a stark white façade inspired by the site-specific works of Christo and Jeanne Claude. Contrasting with the older building above it, Da Integrating sculpted the modernistic exterior like a framed scene able to reflect the bustling city happenings around it. The designers had to address an excess of columns and long passages in the interior – formerly a dental office. Their solution was to conceptualize a single column as a bamboo shoot from which the new space seemingly emerges. It can be seen from the outside. Suiyue Art’s interior is characterized by interspersions and connections, planning that obscures the other original columns.

Its ground floor hosts a display window art gallery, with a second-floor stepped art gallery and an installation gallery on the third floor. Wall openings visually expand the white spaces, which emphasize the play between light and shadows. Pale wood flooring breaks up the colourless palette, imbuing warmth. Panel and linear luminaires brighten and add a futuristic feel to the galleries. The curator’s office is a mixed-use area: beyond workspace, it functions as a collection gallery, VIP reception area and tearoom. An installation referencing traditional bamboo screens takes from Chinese watercolour techniques, bringing hazy, green-tinted light inside. 

FRAME’s take

Art is a powerful incubator for community, making galleries especially positioned to fulfill today’s need for more urban gathering sites. Cultural spaces that address this – and provide an experience that can only be had in-person – will remain relevant regardless of technological development. With Suiyue Art, Da Integrating has merged a familiar typology – the white-box gallery space – with the specific qualities of the location, resulting in a curiosity-provoking yet approachable venue. The varied interior is conducive for mixed-use activations and programming, which truly engaging the community ultimately depends on.