EXCEEDING THE CEILING

The refurbished Lowlowland Gallery offers artists a creative and experimental space with its reflective surfaces and velvet curtains.

In one of the lively neighborhoods of Guangzhou in China, architecture collective Turtlehill transformed a basement into the Lowlowland Gallery. The structure is refurbished to house a new space for artists to fulfil their artistic dreams and hopes. The design sought to overcome the limitations of the existing building by installing numerous mirrors and experimenting with the concept of reflection through space.

In the low ceilinged basement space, architects designed a maze of mirrors to relieve the claustrophobic feeling and visually expand the spatial boundaries. The mirrors generate the illusion of infinite space, maximizing the visitor’s extension of sight. With the introduction of velvet curtains, this infinity effect can be disrupted with opaque surfaces while at the same time providing a soft feeling to the space defined by an exposed concrete structure.

Photography: © Turtlehill