On August8th, Qingdao“Eight Great Passes and Tai Ping Jiao International Cultural Architecture Exposition” formally initiated.5 villa yards on the two sides of Tai Ping Jiao Road including Taiping Bay Modern Art Exhibition Hall will take the lead to open to the public. These old buildings which previously scattered like beads with distance apart is now restrung to compose a dazzling“crystal lace” wearing on the beautiful neck of Qingdao coastline and narrate wonderful stories based on historical buildings for this city.
Within the year13 old villas will open wide with both beauty and stories
Located to the east of the Qingdao Eight Great Passes Scenic Spot, Tai Ping Jiao area surrounded by the sea in three sides totally covers a plot of110 hectares. There are over140 old buildings existing in total in the area. Most of them are classic masterworks left by many domestic and foreign architects in the1920s and1930s.
The5 old villas, which have opened at the same time in Tai Ping Jiao area on August8th, are respectively Taiping Bay Modern Art Exhibition Hall (Taiping Bay Modern Art Gallery and Taiping Bay Sculpture Park), Meeting Van Gogh Coffee Shop, German Black Forest Music Restaurant, and Monnai Garden Boutique Hotel. Included these5 old villas,13 villas will open to the public this year including a series of national culture experience halls inheriting the historical origin of previous consulates including Belgium culture experience hall, British culture experience hall, Norway and Finland culture experience hall, and Italian culture experience hall.
By walking in Eight Great Passes, it seems to be in Europe. Each building can represent a country. Tourists can really indulge themselves in the renowned“international cultural architecture exposition” in Qingdao history. This is the official positioning of Eight Great Passes-Tai Ping Jiao area in the future. So far many old buildings have opened to the public in the area including Huashi Villa, Princess Building, Butterfly Building, Di Zhi Zhi Guang (the Geological Light)Exhibition Hall and Spanish Style Hall. Historical context and fashionable functions continue to combine in these old yards. What people can feel are not only its external appearance but also a historical and cultural site reviving in stories.
Art predominates
Three yards have opened to make a public art space with an area of5,000 square meters
On August8th, two villa yards, located at the intersection of Taipingjiao Yi Road and Zhanshan San Road with an area of over5,000 square meters, had a new name Taiping Bay Sculpture Park. The two old buildings which have newly joined will provide a new public art space for Qingdao namely Taiping Bay Modern Art Exhibition Hall.
The Taiping Bay Modern Art Exhibition Hall located on No.18 Taipingjiao Yi Road is particularly worth mentioning. Completed in1930, this two-floored building with timber structure previously belonged to Dai Shizhen, a priest in American Anglican Church. A French architect named Bai Nade designed it. The construction area of this small building is less than190 square meters but it has a very large yard with an area of nearly2,000 square meters. It is the unique architecture style in Eight Great Passes characterized by the combination of house and garden.
During the premier exhibition of Taiping Bay Modern Art Exhibition Hall,24 masterworks of12 famous foreign watercolor painters, collected by the Qingdao Municipal Gallery, will be on display. They will demonstrate the abundance and diversity of modern watercolor paintings in different countries.
Inside another villa, which is equally a professional exhibition hall, reproductions of European classical oil paintings will be on display. These over20 high-quality reproductions are all from the hands of professional painters in domestic art academies. All themed with religion, they can demonstrate the essence of traditional western art culture from a micro perspective.
In the yard of5,000 square meters, it is amazing to see the imitation of13 European classical sculptures with the same proportion amid a profusion of verdant scene. The sculptures themed with the Garden of Eden and Greek mythology enhance each other’s beauty. It seems to walk into a time-honored European yard. They also add fashion taste of traditional European art to the open Taiping Bay Sculpture Park. This also corresponds to the original intention of Eight Great Passes and Tai Ping Jiao International Cultural Architecture Exposition that it seems to enter Europe by walking in Eight Great Passes.
With a combination of diverse modes, to experience a tastable and liveable European style
Out of the yard of the gallery on Taipingjiao Yi Road, in the horizon is the tracery wall of Meeting Van Gogh Coffee Shop. This two-floored building delivers the design concept of simplicity and comfort and is filled up with ambience of literature and art.
Amid the classical German music, German Black Forest Music Restaurant restores the Bavarian taste and German beer. The Michelin restaurant chef and catering team ranking top100 in Germany cook authentic German delicacy and makes a perfect match between German culinary culture and German style.
In Monnai Garden Boutique Hotel, its main decoration is according to the series of garden works by Monnai. Even the internal wall is the distinctive water lily color.
The gathering of diverse modes including art, lodging, catering, literature, science and technology jointly manifest the urban human style and features with the reliance on buildings make a livable and more diversified experience-based European style. This is the urban feature the project Eight Great Passes and Tai Ping Jiao International Cultural Architecture Exposition wants to convey. It looks more colorful and dazzling after penetrating the crystal lace. Li Wei
(Photo1. Meeting Van Gogh Coffee Shop2. Taiping Bay Modern Art Exhibition Hall3.The reproduction of over20 classical European oil paintings in the collection of Taiping Bay Modern Art Exhibition Hall.4. Scenery everywhere in the luxuriant green yard.)
