Excerpt: The Fan by TEAM BLDG is an outdoor installation designed as a soft, flowing contrast to the surrounding rugged landscape of Jinshanling. Inspired by Tibetan prayer flags, it features fabric panels suspended from T-shaped steel frames, gently swaying in the wind. Acting as both a visual and auditory clue, the installation invites visitors into the exhibition with motion, sound, and a sense of quiet ritual.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Outdoor Exhibition Installation Of The JIANGS In Jinshanling: In 2023, the sculptor Sheng Jiang’s solo exhibition, Being In The Open Field, was held in Jinshanling, Chengde City, Hebei Province, China. The exhibition is located in a valley with endless mountain ranges and lush plants, and the ancient Great Wall relic, built in the Ming Dynasty, stands tall on the northern mountain range that comes into view.
The exhibition is located at the end of the developed area of Jinshanling, and most of the exhibits are placed inside the landscaped architecture Jinshanling The Upper designed by Atelier Deshaus, which makes the visual sense and the visiting route of the exhibition hidden relatively. Therefore, the JIANGS commissioned TEAM_BLDG to design an outdoor installation in the valley outside the exhibition venue, which will serve as a“clue”throughout the exhibition.
Like Trees, Like Light Curtains: When arriving at the site for the first time, the rugged cliff, the ancient Great Wall relic, as well as the architecture with concrete and steel structures attached to the terrain, the Buddha statues and stone sculptures by sculptor Sheng Jiang, all present a very hard characteristic. We want to achieve a relatively soft and light installation that complement the hard landscape. In our conception, the installation should be like a natural tree, it can capture the wind while also providing shelter for someone who is walking on the stone-paved exhibition path. Therefore, Sheng Jiang and us thought of the prayer flags from Tibetan Buddhist simultaneously and used it as the inspiration for the design.
“The Floating Wind Flag” Installation: At the beginning of the exhibition,“The Fan”installation appeared. The “experience”about walking under the undulating wind flags leads visitors into the exhibition hall. The installation uses about 40 3M*2M T-shaped steel pipe units to form an array layout, and connects a total length of more than 120 meters of white soft gauze through transverse rods. Articulated joints in the steel tubes allow the suspended fabric to swing in the wind, causing the installation to naturally change shape. The foundation of the installation coincides with the terraced exhibition route, and each set of T-shaped steel pipes can be flexibly adjusted according to the height and length of the stone-paved exhibition path. Light“The Fan”faces the ancient Great Wall on the mountains to the north, they create dialogue and balance in the external environment.
Apart from the steel pole structure, soft gauze and concrete foundation that is stable and suitable for the mountain road, this installation has no superfluous decorations. The design hopes to interpret the most basic structure to visitors through a concise form of “what you see is what you get”.
Auditory Clue: As a clue to the exhibition, we embedded bells in the two transverse rods of each installation T-shaped structure in order to create the effect of hearing their sound first on the mountain road.When the pneumatic installation swings with the wind in the quiet valley, the bells in the pole will ring. Wind chimes have the meaning of “surprise” and “joy” in Buddhism. The clear wind sound blowing the chimes gives the moving viewer a special auditory experience.
Assembly And Construction By Hand: In order to improve the accuracy of construction, we did a lot of installation proofing at the Shanghai office and factory at a 1:1 scale, artificially simulating wind pressure and rainwater environments in the process. After the testing was completed, all prefabricated components were transported to the Jinshanling site to perform on-site assembly and pre-construction.
The pre-construction period was autumn, and the actual wind pressure in the valley far exceeded our initial prediction range. The top fabric could not withstand the excessive wind load, causing the installation to overturn. Subsequently, we further optimized the installation structure and anchoring nodes based on in-depth analysis of the actual environment and pre-construction experience. After repeated tests, we finally manually completed the assembly and construction of “The Fan”in a limited time of 2 days. Due to the high flexibility of the T-shaped structure, the occasional protruding stones or sunken spaces on the mountain road can be well accommodated with the installation. Therefore, “The Fan”on site showed a state of fit that conforms to the surrounding mountainous terrain finally.
Conclusion: In the exhibition, “The Fan”illuminated by sunlight attracts beetles and birds to land on the surface of the installation. People can see the silhouettes from the original owners of the valley under“The Fan”.When the setting sun shines in the breeze, the installation likes the clothing texture of the Buddha statues fluttering in the wind.It gives ordinary stone-paved exhibition path an “unusual”sense of ritual and brings an extra sensory experience to visitors.
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