AYDC Public Art Center
On a leisurely day beneath gentle sunshine, a walk through Guanshanhu Park in downtown Guiyang offers a rare moment of tranquility in the city. Amidst the lush greenery, three porous stone volumes rise like tents, set lightly by the waterside, on the hillside, and within a grove of ginkgo trees. Their sculptural forms, sharing a unified architectural language, invite curiosity: what purpose might these enigmatic buildings serve? Though lacking explicit definition, their shifting atmospheres from day to day gradually stir an inner resonance, leaving one to wonder what new encounters these curving forms might reveal—and perhaps to imagine becoming a participant in the events that bring them to life.
What is it that captures your gaze and compels you to pause? And when a familiar landscape is suddenly marked by a striking installation, what ripples does it stir within? The box-like pavilions dispersed across the Guanshanhu district were conceived by Atelier XI, drawing inspiration from the distinctive karst landscapes of Guizhou. Designed as the Ayunduo Cang Public Art Center, they transform the city’s central terrain into a site of cultural encounter. Modest in scale yet sculptural in form, these volumes maximize the park’s spatial potential, inviting people to read by the water, meditate among the trees, or dance beneath the stars. The name Ayunduo Cang comes from the Yi language, meaning “our ideal place,” evoking a setting where ideas, creativity, and community may freely converge, drawing art closer to daily life while resonating with Guizhou’s rich cultural and natural heritage.
With clean arcs and fluid outlines, the three sculptural halls—Xima Library, Ginkgo Chapel, and Dali Stage—seem carved from within by the forces of space and light, forming suspended pointed arches reminiscent of local karst caves. Air, daylight, and the passage of time flow through façades of porous white travertine, while the interiors are clad with curved stainless-steel panels that reflect and diffuse light in shifting ways. Though sharing a common architectural vocabulary, each volume reveals subtle distinctions through its function and setting. At the water’s edge, the square form of the Xima Library holds a metallic dome that glimmers across the rippling surface, its reflection merging into the image of a wavering moon. On the hillside, the Ginkgo Chapel is lifted by four immense leaf-like planes; passing through the narrow fissure between twin curved shells, visitors emerge into a central void, where sky and wind become part of the experience. Facing the plaza, the Dali Stage opens outward, its ground embedded with optical fibers that scatter points of light like a galaxy across the floor, transforming evening performances into celebrations beneath the stars.
Today, artistic expression no longer conforms to traditional forms, nor rests solely on the distinction between creator and spectator. When architects and artists leave their works within the city, these become more than physical objects: they are vessels that interweave social thought, regional culture, and ecological landscape. They pose open-ended questions to all who enter, offering spaces that invite experience, exploration, and reflection. In doing so, these public art structures gain richer layers of meaning and affirm the role of aesthetics as an indispensable medium of dialogue between people, nature, and the environment.
