Lake Mansion

Recreating the Elegance of Song Garden

The project is located in Shangqiu, which was known as Songdu or Songzhou in ancient times. The design concept is to recreate the elegant, quaint garden style of Song dynasty in a modern context.

The “Flying Snow in Liang Garden” created by Yuan Jiang, a famous garden painter in the Qing Dynasty, depicts the scenes of Liang Garden, a large-scale royal garden built in Shangqiu during the Western Han Dynasty. Taking the painting as the blueprint, the project recreates the dignified, simple, and grand atmosphere of the Song-style royal garden, and conjures up three landscape spaces: “See the Forest”, “Watch the Mansion” and “Stare at the pond”.

“See the Forest”:

The foreground is shaped into a trendy street to strengthen a commercial ambience of the residential community. With “Hippopotamus Paradise” as a unique intellectual property, an iconic urban neighborhood featuring romance and childish innocence is created amidst the trees and flowers.

“Watch the Mansion”:

The project refers to luxury hotel The Banyan Tree Shanghai for scene creation, with an emphasis on fine craftsmanship. The double-curved rose gold metal formed by a compression molding process is used as the main material to create an exquisite and luxurious hotel-style entrance waterscape. The sculpture, named “Spring up”, is a symbol of good fortune.

“Stare at the pond”:

The backyard is inspired by ink-brush Song paintings. In the pine garden, the inkstone-like pond, and the five elements that represent elegance in traditional Chinese culture including pine, bamboo, stone, water and the moon, create a poetic scene with a fresh color palette and composition. The unique low-hanging connecting corridor guides the sight line, creates a space for staying, and produces fun visual interaction of and a fluid sense of space. In the afternoon, the dazzling sunray in the small garden unfolds a romantic yet simple painting, which is more appealing after the rain.

The landscape spaces compose a version 2.0 demonstration area for the residential property, and will not be demolished or altered. The landscapes offer potential residents a homecoming experience.