2021。Bamboo Bending - ProtoPlain 初樸建築

BambooBending
Bamboo New Field Exhibition

The Reservoir of Memory

Concept /

The site sits in the northern grove of the former lumberyard complex, beside what was once its timber storage pond. “In the northern pond, rods were cast beneath clear skies; cypress logs drifted across the flowing water.”
Historically, this reservoir was more than a place to soak and preserve logs; it was also a vital landscape for the surrounding community, where residents and children gathered. It embodies the collective memory of Chiayi’s timber industry.

Bamboo is a material that reveals itself only through direct engagement. Its use requires touch, patience, and attunement. For us, it represents a form of “reverse construction”—an act of building that resists the purely forward thrust of modern civilization by deepening the dialogue between people and architecture.

In this spirit, the pavilion creates a place for pause, reflection, and gaze. It extends bamboo’s natural bending moment, forming shimmering ripples like water’s surface. Through this resonance of curve and light, the work converses with the site’s layered time and memory. Wind, light, and shade interlace, fusing with the visitor’s most primal senses.

Development /

A tensile system of curved arches shapes a tunnel-like space, recalling both bridge and passage. Its opening frames the cultural park’s meadow, while the elevated platform invites views across what was once the vast storage pond. The arched belly of the form echoes the rise of a natural mound on site.

Bamboo, with its exceptional axial strength in both compression and tension, also embodies a suppleness unmatched by other building materials. By pairing arch with counter-arch, the structure demonstrates the inherent stability of bamboo under bending. Visitors stepping inside can sense not only the form’s graceful span but also bamboo’s living response to stress, perceiving the material’s structural performance as a sensory experience.