About the FRAME Awards

Launched by the renowned Dutch design publication FRAME Magazine (founded in 1997), the FRAME Awards rank among the world’s most influential spatial design honors.

As a barometer for the international design community, FRAME consistently tracks cutting-edge trends in architecture, interiors, installations, and experiential design. Its jury comprises leading designers, scholars, and media professionals from across the globe.

Each year, the FRAME Awards selects the most innovative and socially impactful design projects from thousands of outstanding submissions worldwide. Winning signifies that a project has achieved the highest international recognition for its creative expression, cultural depth, and spatial experience.

Project Background

In 2023, the Guanzhong Mangba Art Festival invited architects to participate as exhibitors for the first time. We were commissioned to renew a traditional courtyard in Caijiapo Village, Huyi District, Xi’an. Located north of the Qinling Mountains, this area has become a hub for art and rural construction practices. Since 2018, professors and students from the Experimental Art Department of the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, led by Mr. Wu Xiaochuan, have established the “Guanzhong Art Cooperative” here and continuously advanced the festival’s localized development.

Design Concept

The northern side of the original courtyard contained an abandoned kitchen and a dilapidated warehouse, which were prone to severe water logging in summer. Our design aimed to address these fundamental functional issues while exploring new possibilities for village renewal.

We drew inspiration from the wave-shaped tile elements of local dwellings, allowing them to flow down the sloping roof to form a curtain-like metal facade texture that responds to natural light, shadow, and the rural fabric. A circular passage at the exhibition hall entrance guides visitors deeper into the courtyard. Rotating metal mesh curtains radiate multiple lines across the pavement, serving dual functions of drainage and way finding.

The courtyard’s elevation was carefully designed to channel rainwater into a linear drainage ditch on the south side, ensuring a comfortable experience in both the exhibition hall and the courtyard. The circular passage also connects two fruit trees with the trees behind the house, forming new spatial relationships that stimulate the imagination of the rural landscape.

Materials and Construction

The perforated metal panels were prefabricated in the factory and assembled on-site within two days. The aperture size and spacing were meticulously calibrated to create three visual layers: transparency, reflection, and projection. Sunlight, the blue sky, and the brick wall interweave at different times, creating a visual experience reminiscent of flowing water.

Inside the exhibition hall, the original brick wall was opened up, and a lightweight steel frame was added to reinforce the roof. The original kitchen chimney was preserved and transformed into a skylight niche, functioning both as a display area for exhibits and a resting nook for visitors.

Project Information

Project Name: Streaming Light Exhibition Hall — Inner Courtyard Renovation for the Guanzhong Mangba Art Festival
Client: Mangba Art Festival
Curators: Wu Xiaochuan, Song Qun, Guanzhong Art Cooperative
Location: Caijiapo Village, Huyi District, Xi’an
Building Area: 37 ㎡
Site Area: 97 ㎡
Design Firm: Daipu Architects
Lead Architect: Dai Pu
Project Architect: Zhao Xinyu
Design Team: Zhao Xinyu, Huang Zhiyi, Wang Zhengqi
Structural Consultant: Yang Xiaotian / I-Structure
Photographer: Wu Qingshan
Design Period: May 2023 – September 2023
Construction Period: September 2023 – January 2024

The Streaming Light Exhibition Hall, designed by Daipu Architects, has won the Popular Choice Award in the Architecture + Metal category and was named a Finalist in the Architecture + Facades category at the 2025 Architizer A+ Awards. This dual recognition from one of the world’s most prestigious architecture awards underscores the project’s innovation in design and material expression on a global stage.

The Architizer A+ Awards is one of the largest and most influential architecture awards worldwide, organized by the leading architecture platform Architizer. Celebrating the most creative and impactful architecture, spaces, products, and design leaders globally, the awards are determined through a combination of a professional jury and public voting. With thousands of entries from over 100 countries annually, the A+ Awards are regarded as a vital benchmark in contemporary architectural discourse.

Streaming Light Exhibition Hall is situated in Caijiapo Village, Huyi District, Xi’an, and is part of a rural courtyard revitalization initiative for the Guanzhong Mangba Art Festival. The site, previously a dilapidated kitchen and storage space, was frequently flooded during summer rains. Confronting these challenges, the design team addressed fundamental structural and drainage issues while proposing a courtyard renewal strategy that blends vernacular language with contemporary spatial interpretation.

Inspired by traditional wave-shaped roof tiles common in the Guanzhong region, the team reinterpreted this element into a dynamic metal façade that cascades along the sloped roof, resembling a flowing curtain. A circular passageway inserted at the gallery entrance invites visitors into the courtyard’s north end. This passage triggers the rotation of the metal mesh curtain and extends into radial paving lines—serving both as spatial articulation and an integrated rainwater drainage system.

“Winning the Popular Choice Award is an inspiring honor for our team,” said Dai Pu, Principal Architect. “We hope this project encourages people to imagine new relationships between nature and space. Flowing Light Gallery centers around interaction—with light, water, materials, and people—creating a space that is participatory and full of movement.”

The project uses prefabricated stainless steel perforated panels, manufactured in segments and assembled rapidly on-site. The size and spacing of the perforations were precisely calibrated to create layered effects, including transparency, mirror reflection, and shadow. As daylight shifts, so too does the spatial atmosphere: at times, the metal mesh reflects the sky like a mirror; at others, it becomes nearly transparent, revealing the original brick architecture behind.

Inside the gallery, the original brick partitions were removed to create a more fluid and open exhibition space. The roof was reinforced with a lightweight triangular steel frame. The old kitchen chimney was preserved and transformed into a skylit niche, which can be used both for displaying artworks and as a quiet resting alcove.

“This project not only responds to climate and site constraints,” added Zhao Xinyu, Project Architect, “but also explores new cultural possibilities for rural architecture in a contemporary context.”

special mention prize

On June 3rd EST, the highly anticipated 12th Annual Architizer A+Awards announced this year’s winners. The awards bring together outstanding entries from more than 80 countries around the world, and the winners were selected after a rigorous judging process.

Waterside Bar, designed by Daipu Architects, won the Special Mention in the Unbuilt Hospitality category.

（https://winners.architizer.com/）

waterside perspective 01

Langjiu Estate has always been an important carrier for describing the centuries-old story of the Langjiu brand. For Langjiu Group’s newly planned Longma Winery in Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, Daipu Architects designed a bar that embodies the spirit of the centuries-old brand and traditional culture charm.

waterside perspective 02

street perspective

In recent years, Daipu Architects has been exploring various opportunities – trying new architectural expressions to respond to traditional historical issues. The bar island in Longma Manor provides an excellent site facing the lake and backing up to the market. So we imagined the bar building as a stone standing by the lake, and through the sculpture of the stone, we created a hidden place for climbing, traveling and exploring in the downtown area. At the same time, we have been thinking about how to combine traditional aesthetic experiences with contemporary lifestyles.

roof

Launched by Architizer in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, Phaidon, WSl and other renowned media outlets, the A+Awards are dedicated to recognizing the best in architecture, spatial projects, and product design around the world. the Architizer A+Awards ensures that the awards are prestigious and authoritative with its rigorous judging criteria and a shortlisting rate of as low as 5 percent.

（trophies）

This achievement by Daipu Architects not only reflects the international judges’ affirmation of our design aesthetics, but also the influence of Chinese design in the global design arena.