REACHING HIGH, TOUCHING THE BLUE -- 致高止蓝
"When the ground is flat, the sky is becoming low; when feet on the ground is firm, there must be a dream reaching high; When freedom of life is in shackles, the blue of the soul will be overbrimming the sky"
“大地广平，天空便俯贴下胸膛；脚踏坚实，梦便攀高直上；自由被束缚铰链，灵魂的蓝便溢满天空。“
--David Yang
Introduction
The site is located at the end of Mississippi Delta, southwest of City New Orleans. It was an oil draining field before. Right now it becomes a vast wild land with rivers and bayous crossing through. it is facing many emerging problems including polluted environment, sea level rise, local culture and economy decreasing...
What is Blue?
When we heard the word blue, the most common reaction would be it is a music type, it is the depression of the mood. However, how does blue interpret these meanings?
When you are listening to the traditional blues music, you will find there are essentially two cores in it -- the high and the low, no matter its lyric or rhythm. The high is its expression of the girl you love, your dream, your passion; the low is the failure, the reality, the depression of life.
Merging the blue into the ground of Mississippi Delta. The high is the force, the tension, the thermal heat, the rich oil resource. The low is being sucked, ruined, the weakness, the sinking.
However, imagine you are at the lowest moment of your life, depressed, frustrated. Try to take a step back and re-experience and rethinking about it. You will find the sense of relief, the freedom, and a huge tension trying to push you up. That moment redefines the blue.
"Blue is the lowest low, there is no way fall lower than that. Thus, it becomes the most solid place with the strongest tension and power to forcing up and reaching high"
“蓝是最低的低，无处陷坠。所以成了最坚实的地方，强壮的力量支撑向上，欲望和梦想“
As a human on the earth, what is blue to us? Imagine the black slaves working on the field. Even though they can not fly, they neither can fall lower than the ground. The ground is the lowest low. The ground is blue. When the feet on the ground is so firm, there is a force to support standing up, building high, launching a rocket to the moon. The blue is the ground.
Extend the Blue Up
However, the ground is vanishing. Since the increasing sea level rise, the flat land on Mississippi Delta has been eroded and drained. In the next 10 years, our ground on site will also gradually swollen by salt water. How to save our ground?
Learning from the labor working model, the surface can be generated and elevated through a certain systematic framework. Through this concept, the ground also can be extended and upraised.
Through modeling the combination of site condition and the systematic structural framework, space created start to tell a story of the site. Especially the wrapping space defined by power lines, forest boundaries and track mark of the land. Since the gesture of wrapping, there will be a moment of the lowest low in the center. No matter which direction you go, you will get higher. The shape of this space also like a huge amplifier, when the sound generated from the lowest low, then it will all bouncing towards up to the sky. A music performance amphitheater will be designed in this place.
Under the slope of the wrapping surface, a research center building will be designed. Since its special location between dense forest and open landscape, it becomes the transition in-between. The concept of this architecture is letting the architecture and nature to extend into each other. Extending the natural forest into architecture forest, extending the architecture surface into the open landscape.
Extension of architecture to nature:
Along the power lines, there is a tunnel space was created among the tree canopies and power poles. A skybridge will be designed in this space. It creates certain moments of calling and responding to the lower wetland boardwalk.
