Ecological Design Town • Shanti

The project is located in the World Ecological Design Town, Conghua, Guangzhou, with its back against mountain. A stream from the mountain runs through the site.

The site occupies an area of 8,700 square meters. How did we build the site as a scenic spot, a stop for tourists and a gateway of the groups?

The project adopted the concept of “natural micro-architecture” to practice the integration of architecture, landscape and interior for the first time to create a complete public environment.

Landscape: The site is located at the lowest part of the stream, with a height difference of 3 meters. The concept of "chisel water at a low place" was adopted to form a lake here. After drawing water into the garden, we carried out a design practice - proposed the idea of "black and white box", and started from architecture to create dimensional space.

Architecture: The white box was a landscape stop that tourists passed by and had a rest. It was suspended on the lake with a height difference of 3 meters, forming an explicit surface.

The black box acted as the gateway to the Shanti, forming the main entrance and a picture frame for viewing.

Interior: The interior was divided into leisure, passage and exhibition spaces, where the original design products of the town would also be exhibited here.

Materials, such as metasequoia, scenic stones and stream, were from original resources of the site.

We researched on the relationship between "ecology" and "design". "Ecology" is nature, and "design" is human's intervention on the quality of life. We hoped to combine the two with an inclusive attitude, and convey them to pedestrians in a hurry. This is what we pursue for "Nature Micro Architecture".