“Architecture should remain silent and let light and wind express” —— Tadao Ando -Japanese Architect 

This case locates on the east side of Pocket Park in Wulinli on Wulin Road of Hangzhou, only 500 meters from the West Lake. It used to be a pet shop with a black façade, and people would call it “the black house”. Not long ago, the owner decided to convert the black house into a community art gallery. Since it is only 60 square meters, it probably would be one of the smallest art galleries in China.

Space structure: The original space is oblong with 13 meters long, 4.2 meters wide and 5.4 meters tall. People would see it through easily and it would be tedious and banal if you don’t deal with a small space in a right way. Therefore, we hoped to turn this small space into a place with various form eventually. 

First of all, we put the entrance at the southwest side so that the visitors would experience the longest distance of the space. Also, we separated some part of the room into two floors and the whole space into 3 parts: the front hall, the middle hall and the back hall. The middle hall connects the front hall and the back hall with a footbridge, which makes different spaces permeate and flow with each other and turn into multiple vague spaces, which also gives the room a sense of rhythm with the variety of low and high, open and close. 

The use of Light: We would like to make this art gallery a closed space with few windows or clerestories since there is a noisy street on the east side of it, the light would come through but you cannot see the street. There are two skylights in both front hall and back hall, which makes the space filled with some kind of divine quality. 

The use of materials: Since this is an art gallery, the exhibition later is the leading role after all, and the space itself is supposed to keep reserved and low-key. We decided to get rid of all the materials and decoration by the skill of minimalism, and let the art gallery back to its essential factors- the light, the space, the size and the structure, just to meet what the architect actually pursues from deep within. 

The whole gallery is in white microcement so that it is visually pure. It also shows its diversity with the various of the space and the flow of the natural light. Therefore, the entire space would eventually appear both pure and various.

 About Klein Blue: We just visited the Pompidou Art Center in France and admired the artist Yves Klein before we designed Ren Art Gallery, we were blown away by the power visually of it. And the glance of blue in Ren Art Gallery is a salute to the artist Yves Klein.