Yin-yang Idea in Architectural Design - Following Rather Than Altering the Objects' Nature

摘要

Yin-yang theory is one of the oldest Chinese philosophies whereby the world is constituted of Yin-yang units rather than pure individual elements. A belief arising from this theory is that when Yin and Yang interact with each other, new things will be generated. "Following rather than altering the objects' nature", which has been widely applied in art and craft creation, originally stems from Yin-yang theory. This idea provides a principle of creating new things based on the original situation with minimal alternation. When the image of the new creation matches the object's existing features, the new creation will be born. Red Brick Art Museum, a rebuilt project based on an abandoned factory, adopts the above idea as its design concept. Thus this project could well interpret the idea "following rather than altering the objects' nature". The design concept does not refer to any supposed form or symbolic meaning of the building, but provides a pragmatic approach of design. Existing circumstances have been addressed greatly. When the image of the new space matched with the existing conditions of the building, transformation strategies would be created, and the rebuilding process would be pushed forward. The ultimate building form is not determined at the very beginning. Building form is not the purpose of the design, but acts as the consequence resulting from the way of dealing with actual problems throughout the design process.