Tao Yiqiu was born in 1905 into a prominent landlord family in Xiajiaqiao Town (now Xiaqiao Community, Lujia Town), Kunshan City. Throughout his life, he made significant contributions to his village. In 1939, he established the first anti-Japanese armed force in Kunshan and even sold his own land to support the resistance efforts.
In recognition of Tao Yiqiu’s honorable deeds and contributions, Lujia Town built the Tao Yiqiu Memorial Hall. Due to the construction of a subway in the surrounding area in 2020, the memorial hall was planned to be relocated to Tao Yiqiu’s birthplace in Xiaqiao Community.
The new site for the memorial hall is situated in a semi-enclosed area surrounded by three community support buildings. It features a rectangular base oriented east-west, with a somewhat cluttered surrounding environment. The design brief was flexible: the building should not exceed 1,000 square meters and must accommodate the few physical exhibits and two statues from the original building.
This design treats the memorial hall as a space dedicated to preserving and sharing memories. It highlights Tao Yiqiu’s life story through a lens of human nature, creating a calm and introspective atmosphere. Visitors are invited to step away from the distractions of daily life and enter a tranquil environment focused on seeing, listening, and reflecting amidst the interplay of light and shadow.
Within this quiet setting, visitors can deeply experience Tao Yiqiu’s struggles and difficult choices during turbulent times and contemplate life by honoring the past.
The design uses two types of walls at varying heights to subtly separate the memorial hall from its surroundings, effectively screening out the community support buildings from visitors’ view. Inside, the building is organized into five themed spaces: the front yard, main courtyard, foyer, exhibition hall, and sculpture courtyard. These areas are aligned along the site’s depth, creating a progressive sequence that gradually distances visitors from the everyday environment.
The visitor route through the memorial hall follows an S-shaped path, winding back and forth around the main axis of the site. This layout extends the exhibition flow within a limited space, continuously shifting the visitor’s visual focus across different themed areas. Visitors can experience these spaces from multiple perspectives, including frontal and diagonal views.
Each themed space features visual exits that create separate sightlines independent from the main path. These connections between focal points allow visitors to engage with the memorial hall through a combination of spatial and visual experiences, both sequential and simultaneous.
The design emphasizes horizontality by utilizing the site’s depth, creating a sense of calm and visual harmony throughout the memorial hall. Through the establishment and dissolution of the building’s facade and symmetry, the design balances volume and lightness by enlarging and compressing the building scale. The interplay between centripetal and dispersed elements within the themed spaces suggests subtle flows and variations, combining a sense of elegance with transparency and lightness.
The building has evolved from a single indoor exhibition hall, which held mainly educational significance, into a peaceful space featuring skyward projections and grassy slopes with a slightly transcendent character. Beyond commemorating ancestors, it now serves as a meditation garden for the Xiaqiao community.
Thus, the Tao Yiqiu Memorial Hall has transformed from a structure to be observed into a sanctuary where visitors are encouraged to look inward and reflect deeply.
Project Drawings
△ Base Schematic Diagram
△ General Layout Plan
△ Plan View
△ Elevation Drawing
△ Section Diagram
Project Information
Architect: Dashe Architectural Design Firm
Area: 563m²
Project Year: 2023
Photographer: Ziran Architecture Photography
Lead Architects: Chen Yifeng, Ma Danhong
Design Team: Chen Yifeng, Ma Danhong, Liang Jun, Du Shangfang
Structural Design: Hezuo Structural Architecture Research Institute, Tongji University Architectural Design and Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd., Zhang Zhun, Chen Xuejian
Mechanical and Electrical Design: Zhao Shiguang, Shi You, Jiang Haoqing, Wang Chenlu, Lu Hong
Owner: Lujia Town People’s Government, Kunshan City
Location: Kunshan
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