Location: Changde, China.

Architect: Atelier Global.

The You Art Center is situated in Changde, the birthplace of the famous Chinese fable Land of Peach Blossoms. The project aims to use urban art as a medium to upgrade and redevelop the city, promote aesthetic education, and enhance public spaces and lifestyles. The center also seeks to rebrand the old city identity and increase exposure and understanding through this new art portal. The architectural design concept of the Changde YOUAN Art Centre revolves around the theme of “The Light of Changde,” using architectural space as a medium to create a stage/platform for the cultivation of art and spiritual lifestyle. To cater to various art programs, the center features a series of functional boxes organized around a vertical public atrium. The venue becomes a museum without walls or boundaries, allowing visitors to experience the space under the brightly lit skylight atrium. The building is designed in a series of stacking boxes of various sizes, heights, and proportions to accommodate the diverse expressions and formats of contemporary art. The center envisions an art space with more publicness, flexibility, and public engagement. Unlike traditional art exhibition centers, the future of the You Art Center is not just a stage for art pieces but also promotes interaction between the public and artists. The vertical public atrium serves as an informal public space for exhibitions, events, and circulation, reflecting the traditional social characters of the lanes and streetscape in a vertical manner to interface art with the public.