Chuchu Qi a.k.a. Chuchu
selected works [architecture]
Immigrants Oral Story Center
Critic: Shantel Blakely
Summer 2022 | Study Abroad Optional Studio
Florence, Italy
Located at a historically important piazza in Florence, this oral story center is a place for the diverse immigrant group in the city to record their personal stories. Contextually, the project echoes with surrounding old buildings including the Loggia del Grano, Uffizi Gallery, and Palazzo Vecchio, and translates the historical architectural elements into a contemporary form.
The idea of making the cultural identity center a place for storytelling and story archives originated from my ethnographic works around the city. Started with interviews with a Romanian leather goods retailer near San Lorenzo, a Chinese Masseuse in Chinatown, and a homeless refugee from Mali in the Piazza dell’ Indipendenza, the projects took the individual narratives into the whistle-shape hubs, where immigrants and visitors come from all around the world in Florence can have a place to speak with their native language and tell their own stories.
The idea of making the cultural identity center a place for storytelling and story archives originated from my ethnographic works around the city. Started with interviews with a Romanian leather goods retailer near San Lorenzo, a Chinese Masseuse in Chinatown, and a homeless refugee from Mali in the Piazza dell’ Indipendenza, the projects took the individual narratives into the whistle-shape hubs, where immigrants and visitors come from all around the world in Florence can have a place to speak with their native language and tell their own stories.
Segments of story in the city
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A triptych of 3 Narratives
A triptych of 3 Narratives
Skeches of the idea of “story-telling hubs”, testing how the form can incoperate with the roof structure and orientation of natural light.
Oblique Section, hand-drawing + collage
Physical Model Pictures, Scale 1:100
Digital rendering of the Interior Space
“A space that records the Florence multi-cultural history, and narratives within...”