In the bamboo forests of Yangshuo, China, against the backdrop of karst mountains, a series of new interconnected canopies blends into the dramatic landscape. The four amorphously shaped structures, commissioned by the local music-and-light spectacle called Impression Sanjie Liu, are composed of tightly handwoven bamboo, and cover over 20,000 square feet along a pathway leading to the outdoor performance stage. The design, by Shanghai-based IILab, called for weaving thousands of strips of locally sourced bamboo, and affixing them to a structural steel frame “to augment, albeit very subtly, the surrounding bamboo groves and hills,” explains founding partner Hanxiao Liu. Using this traditional Chinese handicraft, the canopies create intricate “bamboo gallery spaces,” says the architect, where the audience can meander before and after each nighttime performance, held just beyond the covered walkway on the banks of the Li River. Like many cultural endeavors, Impression Sanjie Liu, a big tourist attraction, hit “pause” during the worst of the pandemic earlier this year, but the company has since resumed productions, with fewer shows—though still enough to make an impression.
Snapshot: Bamboo Bamboo by IILab.
Yangshuo, China
![Bamboo-Bamboo](http://www.architecturalrecord.com/ext/resources/Issues/2020/11-November/Bamboo-Bamboo-011.jpg?1604696490)
Photo © Arch-Exist Photography