A Private Fish Maw Museum by Jingu Phoenix Space Planning Organization
The project is a private museum of dried fish maws (also known as swim bladders), which is located in Shoutou City, China. The client has been interested in collecting aged fish maws for several decades. With a view to communicating the culture and value of fish maws, he entrusted JINGU PHOENIX SPACE PLANNING ORGANIZATION to create a neat space for displaying his collection.
The designers deconstructed the spatial functions via architectural languages, and adopted gray as the main hue, so as to highlight the gold aged fish maws that carry the memories of time. In addition, they utilized old oak timber and gave it sawtooth grain through special treatment. The aged texture and color of oak wood coincide with those of fish maws, which generates dialogue between the materials and the collection.
An arched door opening guides visitors to enter the interior space and start the journey of exploring fish maw culture. Opposite to the entrance is a fish-shaped iron art installation, which is handmade by artists and hung in the air, seeming to tell the history of fish maws. In the double-height hollow space, the original concrete beam is exposed and penetrated by a wooden strip that is embellished with bulbs, thereby enhancing structural aesthetic and functionality as well. The first and second floors are connected by a staircase, which is formed by oak wood featuring sawtooth grain. There is a reception hall on 1F, in which all the furniture is made of oak wood, to ensure an austere texture within the space. At the other side of the first floor, a large glass door opens up the space for showcasing the client's collected fish maws, where an abstract painting themed on human and fish attracts visitors to immerse themselves in the display space. The designers applied various straight and oblique structural shapes, to create the overall visiting circulation. The concave form of exhibits, the museum-like display, as well as rigorous lighting design, all help to accentuate the shape and texture of each piece of fish maw. As the natural light filtering into the space, the interior surfaces finished with white paint produce interplay of light and shadows.
The display and reception areas provide space for multiple people to communicate. Various combinations of furniture, as well as the bubble-like lamps that symbolize "the water of life", together create balance and artistic conception in the space, rendering it artistic and conformable.
Designer Profile
Ye Hui is a senior environment designer, who graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He advocates natural aesthetics, excels at creating spaces that carries Oriental humanism based on contemporary context, and has unique insights into materials, light and shadows as well as spatial structures.
Founded in 2008, JINGU PHOENIX SPACE PLANNING ORGANIZATION (JG PHOENIX for short) is a design agency dedicated to a wide spectrum of upscale spaces. We continuously work to create spaces in line with Oriental humanism, and hope to let people perceive Western logical thinking as well as the Oriental sentiment of conforming to nature in the spaces we designed. In addition, we emphasize the harmony among architecture, environment and human, and strive to touch people's heart and enable the dialogue between mankind and nature via the utilization of simple materials and "intangible" expressions.
The design agency’s name is given profound meaning. The words “JIN” and “GU” respectively refer to “today” and “past” in Chinese. Today and past together constitute the time line that runs through history. “Today” wouldn't come into being if there were no extension of ancient matters, while if there were no such noun of “today”, we couldn't look back to the past things. “Phoenix” represents the spirit of the east, which is the cultural identification that inherits China's 5,000 years of history.
With more than ten years of practices in the design field, Ye Hui and his team have completed a great many exceptional works, which have won multiple prominent international awards, including Red Dot Design Awards, iF Design Award, IIDA Global Excellence Awards, Architecture MasterPrize, International Design Awards (IDA), Asia Pacific Interior Design Award, Taiwan Interior Design Award, etc. Besides, his works have been published on various well-known magazines and media platforms worldwide, such as Dezeen, ArchDaily, Architectural Digest, InteriorZine, INTERIORS, DesiDaily, gooood, DINZ, Designwire, ELLE DECO, Modern Decoration, together-design. In 2019, Ye Hui won Perspective’s 40 UNDER 40 Awards, which recognizes him as one of the 40 young design talents in Asia. In the same year, he was selected by Sina Jiaju as one of the 10 winners of The Third New Power Interior Design Award.
Representative works include restaurants like Highland Star Chef Restaurant, Sui Han San You, Han Shang Lou and Piao Yan; showrooms like Fusion • Danilo Paint Showroom and A Private Fish Maw Museum; residences like Gong Sheng, A Place Where Dreams Begin, In Between and others.
www.jingfh.com