2024 - Rainbow, by the horse-head wall

Introduction
In recent years, with the acceleration of urbanization and the outflow of rural labor, the problem of aging population in some villages and towns has become increasingly prominent. The departure of young people has led to a serious imbalance in the population structure of these areas, with a large number of elderly people becoming the main body of community life. This means that rural communities need to find new development paths, retaining traditional cultural characteristics while adapting to the needs of the elderly and modern social changes.
This project fully utilizes the wasted corner space of the original building, making it a beautiful light and shadow corridor. In daily life, it is a place for elderly people to rest, stay, and socialize. On holidays, it can also become a gathering place for young tourists and a photo check-in point. During the day, it reflects many rainbows on the white wall. At night, it illuminates the pitch black night road with rainbow light.
Background
San-he Ancient Town is a village in Anhui Province, China. Due to its 2500 year history and some remaining historical sites, it was rated as a 5A level which is the highest level tourist attraction in 2015. However, apart from some locals who come here for tourism during holidays, few out-of-town tourists are aware of its existence. The main reason is that the large-scale construction in the last century did not truly protect many historic buildings, but instead concentrated the construction of a large number of rough modern antique architectural complex.
The tall horse-head wall was once the most distinctive architectural component of this village in ancient times. Originally used for fire prevention in the wooden structures of adjacent houses, it has become a purely decorative symbolic component in the extensive construction of modern times. So in recent years, some problems have gradually emerged. The emergence of a great number of enclosed high walls hinder
communication and exchange among residents, and also cause waste of space.
So today, we hope to make full use of these wall spaces, without damaging the original architectural style, to provide daily communication and rest space for surrounding residents. During holidays, it can also become a photo commemorative point for tourists everywhere and a gathering point for vendors.
Concept
In San-he Ancient Town, almost all buildings are made of white walls and black tiles. Although it is necessary to preserve their characteristics, it has long been rigid, especially in the current development of tourism industry in various regions. In order to break this rigid dogma, create vitality for the aging ancient town, and attract people into the space with light, the project uses ”rainbow” as an element to create two ”rainbow” effects: 1. Rows of triangular prisms project small rainbows onto the white wall under sunlight. 2. The LED lights at both ends of the prism make it the lamp pillar itself, forming a large rainbow as a whole.
In addition, the project strives to achieve coordination with the surrounding environment in various aspects: 1. The overall project is based on an outdoor corridor by the wall, and the concept of its appearance is derived from the ”unilateral corridor” shape in ancient Chinese architecture, with sloping eaves echoing the classical form of the horse-head wall. 2. The main color tone of the corridor is red, which aims to create a sharp contrast with the surrounding buildings in black and white, but also conforms to the traditional culture of using red.
Principle of illumination
1.Dispersion of light: During the day, sunlight forms a rainbow through a prism at a certain angle.
2. Refraction of light: At night, when the light passes through the interface between the prism and the air, it undergoes refraction, making the prism the luminous body itself.
3. Sloping roof: Maximizing exposure to sunlight or self illumination.
4.Energy saving: Collecting sunlight energy for rotation or self illumination.
Structure and Materials
1.Solar panels:Absorb solar energy to provide energy for the rotation of the prism during the day and the lighting at night.
2.Black stainless steel window frame:Protecting the glass roof.
3.Cornice:Prevent roof sliding and effectively drain on rainy days.
4.Transparent glass skylight:Waterproof, blocking a small amount of sunlight while allowing most of the sunlight to penetrate the lower layer and protecting the lower triangular prism.
5.Triangular prisms:Disperse sunlight and project it onto the wall to form rainbows.And they become luminescent media at night.
6.Rotation shafts:The components connecting the prisms can rotate the prisms around their axes.
7.Stationary shafts: Connect the shafts to the frame, and fix the axes position of the triangular prisms.And equipped with LED lights, making the prisms light up at night.
8.Red stainless steel frame:Support the roof structure and provide space under the eaves.
9.Stainless steel seats and plinth.