A colourful intervention
Golden Barnyard by Wutopia Lab
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On the island of Chongming by Shanghai, Yu Ting and his Wutopia Lab studio have redesigned a farmyard into a vibrant “Cockaigne for everyone”. At least, this is the subtitle the architects have given what is their third artistic intervention on behalf of the Bright Food Group, China’s second-largest food corporation.
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Before this, they transformed an unused water tower on a farm around 50 km north of central Shanghai. This project is called the “Memorial of Everyman”; an old pumphouse here has been replaced with a pavilion known as the “Shrine of Everyman”. The unifying theme is a tribute to all those who worked here in the past in order to supply the nearby city with food.
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Personal memories of Wutopia founder Yu Ting influenced the redesign of the unused farm. Like many young Chinese, while he was in secondary school he was sent to an agricultural operation to help with the harvest. Here, Wutopia Lab have used abstract means – particularly colour – to create the image of a farmyard at harvest time on the open area. Grain-yellow, water-permeable concrete covers the ground. Rust-red lines show the imaginary outlines of storage rooms, silos and other agricultural features.
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In the corner of the lot, the ground swells like a heap of grain awaiting transport. The white-lacquered wreck of a tractor stands in the middle of the space. The architects have restored the existing buildings more painstakingly in some places than others. The old main building, which is of brick, has been extensively preserved, while the storage shed for tools has been given a new concrete façade.
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The remaining buildings – including the two-storey barracks with the workers’ quarters – have been graced with a new, cream-coloured shell of polycarbonate multi-skin sheeting and a new name: Bright Milk House. This area is now home to multifunctional spaces devoted to research, development and displays of the Bright Group’s latest products.
Architecture, landscape architecture: Wutopia Lab
Client: Shanghai Qianyi Agricultural Development
Location: GW75+76Q Qianshao Farm, Chongming, Shanghai, China
Implementation planning: Shanghai Zhumeng Architectural Design
Lighting design: Zhang Chenlu
Contractor: Shanghai Longma Construction and Installation Company
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