42 DIGS.NET
| 11.18.22
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less, it reads as artificial and human-built.
This is intentional, note architects Li and
Huang, a duo that designs with transgres-
sive gusto, creating architecture with rela-
tionships and reconnection as foundational
principals. This is especially true of Chapel
of Sound, a space designed to give shape
to a shapeless thing—sound itself.
Given very little direction beyond the initial
design brief, in which the client—with
whom Li and Huang had previously worked
on the otherworldly Dune Art Museum—
requested an outdoor concert hall, the
architects were at liberty to create what
they liked. In this case, a building born
from imagination and observation alike.
"Inspiration comes from many directions for
us," they say. "Nature is the ultimate one.
OCATED IN RURAL Chengde, China,
at the base of a valley with ruins
of the Great Wall, the almost
alien-looking performance
venue Chapel of Sound, which
hosts concerts in warmer climes
and contemplation year-round, is an
architectural opus by Beijing-based OPEN
Architecture. Led by founding partners Li
Hu and Huang Wenjing, OPEN is one of the
most dynamic practices of the current era,
known for its pantheon of highly concep-
tual cultural architecture, from museums
and art centers to a soaring, sci fi-like sun
tower. Chapel of Sound is something of a
crescendo for the studio—another work
to dazzle the eye, boggle the mind, and
stimulate the senses.
Resting on a gentle slope and shaped
like an inverted cone, Chapel of Sound is
a poetic and profoundly radical structure
whose rough, rock-like façade echoes the
raw and largely fragile surround. Neverthe-
