Bian’an Ancient Town, as a nationally recognized historic and cultural village, is nestled among mountains and rivers, with its ancient streets carrying profound historical memories. This project involves the renovation of a dilapidated wooden structure into an exhibition hall, engaging in a dialogue between architectural language and the ancient town’s environment. By blending into the surroundings through a strategy of “concealment” within tradition, the building adopts a layered roof design, maintaining a modest and reserved presence from a distance. Only the distinctive “V”-shaped roof subtly reveals its contemporary identity, demonstrating both respect for tradition and an independent architectural expression.

In terms of materials and form, the exterior preserves the old street’s visual identity by replacing the traditional bamboo-latticed white walls with frosted white glass. This not only maintains the local architectural character but also creates a hazy visual effect through the interplay of light and shadow. Internally, an intense spatial atmosphere is crafted, with a dense array of linear wooden grilles forming a repetitive and pure spatial structure. These grilles interact with translucent red, yellow, and white light panels, weaving a luminous narrative that evokes the town’s past glory.

The exhibition space utilizes transparent wooden grilles to create a sense of vastness within a compact area while also serving as a backdrop for displays. This blurs the boundaries between tradition and modernity, forming fragmented memories. The orderly arrangement of the wooden grilles inherits the essence of traditional wooden structures while establishing a new spatial logic. In construction, the project integrates traditional mortise-and-tenon craftsmanship with modern techniques, using wooden structures, transparent fire-resistant varnish, and waterproof layers to meet contemporary building standards, achieving a seamless fusion of modern technology and traditional craftsmanship.