SKEW Collaborative

Jia Little Exhibition Center integrates the display and production spaces of creative industries into a single mixed-use building complex, consisting of an exhibition hall and three work-live atelier buildings. The primary spatial strategy is to create a seamless relationship between spaces of production and consumption, so that visitors and consumers are reconnected with the knowledge and appreciation of the processes of making and production.

We live in an age where we are no longer acquainted with the origins and production of the goods we consume, often unwittingly exposing ourselves to materials that may be hazardous to our health, or goods that are produced under unfair or exploitative production practices. In pursuing this project, while the primary goal is to establish elegant and practical exhibition spaces, we feel there is a responsibility to bring visitors to the more gritty production houses behind-the-scene. In fact, one may argue this is exactly what an educated consumer seeks today – to learn about the responsible practices of the manufacturers, the ethics of the designers, the social and environmental responsibility towards the acquisition of the raw materials, the tools of the manufacturing process, and so on.

The exhibition hall is in essence a horizontal core that is made visible on the exterior through a formally expressive wood cladding and steel framing system. This continuous core circulates visitors through the 4 buildings on an elevated level, enveloping otherwise separate display spaces within the exhibition hall. As visitors weave through the complex across the bridges into different production studios and fabrication plants, they are re-oriented at different levels of communicating lobbies and stairs. In other words, the production programs are being held together in the center by the exhibition hall, allowing visitors to reach other spaces without getting off the circuit of exhibition. The core is stretched and circulation is prolonged through a retail strategy of linear persuasion, weaving visitors through a multitude of spatial experiences – from artificially lit exhibition interiors to exterior ramped bridges, from sleek exhibitions to design studios and untidy fabrication plants. The experience of the exhibition is re-thought through this project, with the hope that a visitor’s experience can be enhanced and authenticated by the connectivity between production and consumption.