I.M. Pei | Suzhou Museum: Modern Gateway of White Walls and Black Tiles

The entrance adopts the vocabulary of Jiangnan gardens but is entirely geometrized: white plastered walls, dark gray granite replacing black tiles as moldings and ridges, and an entrance opening simplified into pure geometry—traditional moon gates and octagonal gates are abstracted into octagons and perfect circles, with fine dark gray stone frames. The roof is a combination of rhomboid slopes, with straight lines at the turns. Beyond the entrance opening is a framed garden depth of field: rockery, a pond, and a tree. All curves are removed, retaining only the proportions and the logic of framed views. Shot frontally under soft, diffused light, with clear light and shadow layers inside and outside the entrance opening. Avoid: using real black tiles and warped ridges, adding intricate carvings to the entrance opening, adding painted decorations to the walls, no framable view outside the entrance opening.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

入口沿用江南園林的語彙但全部幾何化:白色的抹灰牆、深灰花崗岩取代黑瓦作為線腳與屋脊、以及一個被簡化成純粹幾何的門洞——傳統的月洞門與八角門被抽象成八角形與正圓,邊框為深灰石材的細線。屋頂為菱形的坡面組合,轉折處以直線收束。門洞之後是一段被框住的庭園景深:片石假山、水池與一棵樹。所有曲線被拿掉,只保留比例與框景的邏輯。柔和的散射光下正面拍攝,門洞內外的明暗層次清楚。避免:使用真的黑瓦與翹曲屋脊、門洞加繁複雕花、牆面加彩繪、門洞外沒有可框的景。