AYDC Public Art Center opens in Guiyang
In Guiyang, China, Atelier Xi designs its AYDC Public Art Center to unfold as a series of sculptural pavilions embedded into the landscape. Completed in multiple phases since its 2022 groundbreaking, the project reimagines how architecture can animate culture-driven communities at the foot of Guizhou’s karst mountains.
Initially envisioned as a single building, the center evolved into a constellation of distinct yet interconnected spaces: the Xima Library, Ginkgo Chapel, and Dali Stage. This disaggregation allows the architects to integrate each volume into its own environmental niche, creating flexible platforms for reading, performance, and quiet contemplation.
images © Zhang Chao
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Atelier Xi’s Xima Library sits beside a reflective pool within the Art Center plaza, its travertine mass carved out with a luminous metallic dome within. On a still morning, the dome’s silhouette drifts across the water, darkening and brightening in concert with passing clouds. The library’s inner chamber, assembled from curved stainless-steel plates, softens daylight into a muted glow.
A short walk uphill leads to the Ginkgo Chapel. Here, the architects organize four massive stone volumes, inspired by ginkgo leaves, support a vaulted interior void. Visitors approach along a narrow canyon formed by the curved exteriors, then emerge into a chamber open to the sky. In spring, filtered sunlight dances through fresh leaves; in autumn, the canopy burns gold.
the AYDC Public Art Center in Guiyang is designed by Atelier Xi as a series of sculptural pavilions
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Facing the public square of the Art Center, Atelier Xi’s Dali Stage creates a sculptural threshold between architecture and performance. Its shell is shaped by the negative imprint of an invisible arch, as though space itself has been scooped away. At night, fiber optic lights embedded in the floor illuminate the stage in shifting constellations. During festivals, crowds gather under this canopy of stars, their movements reflected in the polished, mirror-finish steel.
Though each pavilion serves a different function, they share a unified language. The square travertine exteriors are subtly perforated, inviting wind and daylight to pass through. This porous quality lends the buildings a quiet permeability, reinforcing the sense that architecture here is less about enclosure and more about framing the experience of place.
the project transforms a single-building plan into three distinct spaces integrated with the landscape
Throughout the year, the surrounding landscape becomes an active participant in the composition. In summer, dense green foliage crowds the chapel’s thresholds. By late autumn, the ginkgo forest has turned a layered amber, mingling with the pale stone facades. Even in winter, when the trees are bare, the structures stand in dialogue with the sky and low-angled light.
The architects describe the project as an attempt to activate the site’s inherent vitality with minimal formal gestures. In practice, these sculptural interventions have created spaces where local artists and residents can gather informally, adding new layers of memory and association to the land.
More than a series of objects, the AYDC Public Art Center proposes architecture as a vessel for imagination and collective expression. Each pavilion extends the ethos of ‘Ayunduocang,’ whose name, derived from the Yi language of Guizhou, means ‘our land of dreams.’
Xima Library sits by a reflective pool is carved out with a luminous metallic dome
the Ginkgo Chapel is supported by four massive stone volumes
the design celebrates Guizhou’s cycles of seasonal change in the surrounding forest
each pavilion combines porous travertine exteriors and stainless steel interiors that filter light and air
architecture here acts as a vessel for community gathering and cultural memory
project info:
name: AYDC Public Art Center
architect: Atelier Xi | @atelier_xi
location: Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
design team: Zhu Zhu, Huang Zhenfeng, He Xiansen, Zhang Manjia, Huang Fangbai, Zhan Kaichao
client: SEEKING GROUP
landscape design: So boring company, Zhao Xiong
photography: © Zhang Chao
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