Shanghai-based architecture studio Wutopia Lab has transformed the concierge room of tourism company Aranya, based in Qinhuangdao, China, into a striped information center. Replacing its original skin with a semi-transparent glass, the architects have rebuilt the company's square concierge office block, which also serves as a tourist information center. The architecture studio wrapped this glass box with an external wall, which has a distinctive striped blue and white facade. The wall around the box-shaped office creates a curved courtyard, which acts as a transitional space between the office and the city. The floor of the courtyard is also striped blue and white to match the walls.The architects drew inspiration from the sea, which is the key element of the port city where Aranya is based, in their choice of colors for the stripes. The sea also inspired the circular, porthole-style windows, which are punched through the wall of the revamped office block.  Talking about the design, Yu Ting, Wutopia Lab’s lead architect said: “What Aranya keeps on emphasizing and reminding me is the ocean. This made me think of the pattern of sea-striped shirts that is immediately associated with sailors and the ocean. I decided to use this pattern to cover completely this wall and grounds.”While the building’s design and appearance draw from its close proximity to the sea, its lightweight polycarbonate and perforated steel structure responds to the strong ocean winds.The Striped House is a continued exploration into the use of imagination in ambiguity in Wutopia's projects. The architecture studio tends to design building elevations with a layered effect that attempts to blur the climatic boundaries of architecture. In this building, for instance, the striped pattern softens the solidity of the wall, creating an optical illusion that seems to distort the shape of the information center. As described by Ting, “this has become a newly formed antithesis, that evokes a certain giddiness that leads you to the sea.”.Founded by Yu Tin, Wutopia Lab is an architecture studio based on a new paradigm of complex system. It is dedicated to link different aspects of urban life: traditional, daily and cultural to interpret urbanian lifestyle and to develop a contemporary Chinese aesthetic based on Shanghai.  https://www.blouinartinfo.com/              Founder: Louise Blouin Read more