As part of their qualifying diploma paper, graduates of the SUSU Institute of Architecture and Construction Yiwen Bian and Xinyu Zhu designed a venue for wedding ceremonies at Lake Smolino. Three styles were proposed for an open space for ceremonies: European, Chinese and Russian. When designing the Chinese style venue, students decided not to opt for the traditional bright red colours so that the setting looked fresh and natural. A European style wedding, as the students see it, implies a lot of green plants and wooden arches symbolizing the Western culture chic. And finally, in the Russian style wedding venue they put focus on the art of oil painting. It is interesting that in order to create a rich rustic atmosphere, the architects from China used eras of rice and flowers.
"I chose this topic because I've always had my own vision of wedding ceremonies. I think that marriage is sacramental. As a kid, I had been organizing my own wedding in my dreams countless times," explained architect Yiwen Bian. "When we studied diploma projects of the previous SUSU graduates, we found that there had not been a single wedding-themed design, that's why we were immediately inspired by this idea."
The project also includes quite non-standard structures that could apply to various styles, for instance, glass platforms. These are mounted on floating pontoons and form a glass bridge. The design concept implies that you can walk on this structure and admire the underwater life right under your feet.
The choice of materials was based on an environment-friendly approach: timber and stone materials prevail. Soft colours and solar power technologies are used for the illumination devices. Zoning (lounge zone, viewing zone, and entertainment zone) allows to organize the venue in an effective way.
Yiwen Bian and Xinyu Zhu are no strangers to modern computer technologies used for creation of mockups. To build the landscape, they resorted to the Sketchup modelling program. The Chinese computer program D5 was of help in the postprocessing. For the planning and designing of storeys, CAD systems were used.
"Some difficulties in this work were caused by the fact that the students did not know our city that well. But they successfully made up for it with their hard work, which is characteristic of students from China," noted Igor Li, diploma paper advisor. "Yiwen and Xinyu were sincerely trying to embrace a different culture, and more than that, synthesise it with their native one."
Potentially, this project by the Chinese students may be of interest to the Administration of Chelyabinsk. Today, our city with a million-plus population can offer not that many venues where you can hold an off-site wedding ceremony and reception.