A path meanders through the length of the building, from the entrance on the east to the top of the guesthouse on the west, and takes visitors through a series of open and covered spaces. “You go outside, then inside, outside, inside,” says Wang. “Finally you go to the top of the hill, and you see back.” Other paths cut directly through the width of the building. Additional indirect rambles along tight alleys, bridges, and stairways lead to courtyards, benches, dead ends, or spots for a smoke. From any path, the roof’s intricate wood-and-steel structure marks a striking contrast to walls made of rammed earth, rock, bamboo-finished concrete, and even recycled tile and pottery. The combination of traditional craftsmanship and modern construction makes visitors want to touch and engage with the building.

It may be a cliché to say Tiles Hill feels like a village, but after accidentally happening upon cascading pools of water and pleasantly getting lost, this urbanite felt a true sense of walking through a dense neighborhood. Wang says that the “Chinese spirit” evoked here is like winding your way through a mountain or stepping into a traditional landscape painting. Whether urban or rural, the routes are full of chance sights and meetings. “The building is not about the form or shape: it’s about the discovery,” says Wang. “From one layer to another, it offers surprises.”

Tiles Hill is the first building Amateur has completed since Wang was awarded the Pritzker in 2012. It reuses some of the features that drew attention to his work. Oversized wall cutouts, referencing those in Chinese garden walls, are similar to those used in the Ningbo Tengtou Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. A dominating exposed-structure roof is the centerpiece of the Museum of the Imperial Road in downtown Hangzhou. A walking path on top of the roof is a hallmark of Amateur’s best-known work, the Ningbo History Museum. But the success of Tiles Hill lies less in these big gestures than in its small labyrinthine spaces. As impressive as the project’s large roof is, it is upstaged by the multilayered show beneath it.

Amateur’s previous works include complicated interiors encased in big, bold boxes, but Tiles Hill exudes complexity both inside and out. It would be simplistic to say that the new building marks a move from iconic to contextual design for the firm. Tiles Hill’s program calls for a different approach than that for a museum or pavilion. But one can only hope that the serene intricacy of this project finds a voice in Amateur’s future work, including the 420,000-square-foot museum in the Fuyang District of Hangzhou that is in design and should be completed in roughly three years.

By Clare Jacobson

> via ArchitecturalRecord