Jinhua Structure II - Vertical is a variation on a concrete pavilion by Swiss architects for a new park in the Chinese city of Jinhua. It is temporarily installed in the park near the Wolfsburg Museum of Art, where the ArchiSculpture exhibition is currently taking place, dedicated to the mutual influence of plastics and architecture from the 18th century to the present day.
The sculpture by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron is of particular interest in that its design was entirely computer-generated and itself carved out of pine wood by a programmed milling machine. Thus, this is the first work of a Swiss architects, carried out from start to finish with the help of a computer. The source material for it was their unrealized project for the new Jinhua district, more precisely, the motive for the location of windows in the brick walls of his residential buildings. It was from it, with the help of special programs, that the curved forms of the first horizontal park pavilion were generated, and then the vertical volume of the sculpture "Jinhua II Structure - Vertical" for a museum in Basel. Its height is 9 m, weight is 12 tons.
The pavilion in Jinhua is called "Jinhua Structure I" and was implemented in a much simpler way: in China it was not possible to cast it according to drawings with high accuracy, so the workers were guided by its longitudinal and transverse cuts, made at intervals of 10 cm. The pinkish concrete structure has discrepancies with the project, the architects are pleased: this is their first construction in China (the second will be the giant Olympic Stadium in Beijing). Unlike its wooden European counterpart, "Jinhua I" can be touched by hands and even climbed to the top.
Like the stadium, the new park is a joint project of Swiss architects with artist Ai Weiwei. Jinhua is the birthplace of his father, the prominent Chinese poet Ai Qing. In memory of him, Weiwei laid out a park there, sculpture-pavilions in which were created by architects from all over the world.
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