Firm： Guangzhou S.P.I Design Co., Ltd

Type： Commercial › Exhibition Center Landscape + Planning › Urban Green Space

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2020

SIZE： 25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

BUDGET： Undisclosed

Project Description

The client proposed to bring a natural but artistic atmosphere to the site. The project respects the original natural mountain atmosphere and the essence of the orchard. It features three elements: The design of a pure cherry orchard, elevated in the sky. A base of emerging curved textured walls made from local granite boulders form a strong image and blur the boundary of vertical wall and horizontal path. Winding roads covered in cherry blossom petals complete the impression of the forest valley.

It is a very impressive project. It was created entirely from local materials and really lets passers-by reflect a different spatial experience. Visitors walk through a kind of curved path that is lined with rough stones and cherry trees are planted above these stones, which of course are in bloom. That means you get a great atmosphere. It immerses passers-by for a brief moment in a completely different world.

Design Highlight

The project turns the topic of cherry blossoms into an experience for all the sense. The visitor wanders through a winding, seemingly archaic route, which is reminiscent of a valley, while attention is drawn to the cherry trees. The way in which the high walls made of local natural rock appear to seamlessly merge into the cherry trees above, which are in full bloom, abolishing the boundary between horizontal and vertical structures, creates a wonderful feeling of lightness and reinforces the impression of finding yourself in an immaterial place. A perfectly composed landscape, which focuses on what is essential and whose poetic power and charm are difficult to resist.

Innovation

Similar designs used in different sites is not rare nowadays. We rejected such crude copying, and strived to intervene in the site. We applied the way of on-site design to get known of the site condition and local materials.

With the spirit of “rooting” in the site, we adopted the strategy of integrating landscape and land, and used unique skin technique to abolish the boundary between horizontal and vertical structures.

Challenge

Big steep, bare rock, loess land…How to balance the relation between landscape and site, how to blur the boundary between horizontal and vertical structures, and how to use local resources to create a natural feeling were what we should solve.

Sustainability

Rubble, was a witness to the era of the change of site. We used rough stones which were originally from the site and processed them into stone veneer. Local craftsmen used traditional techniques and modern expressions to take the locality. People and nature were guarding this place in the same way.