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Architects: Wilburban Architects
- Area: 3800 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Guowei Liu, Hanfeng Zou
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Lead Architects: Jacky Chan
Text description provided by the architects. The project is located just 60 kilometers from downtown Chongqing, in Banan, where the mountains stretch endlessly and forests are dense. The distance between urban life and nature is not as far as one might imagine, but rather deeply intertwined.
The site is on a steep mountain peak with a large gradient, and only a gentle path at the top. Walking through, visitors are constantly surrounded by tall, slender fir trees, disorienting the sense of direction.
The main building's front elevation is a spherical concave shape, echoing the circular plaza in front, transforming the building into the stage backdrop for the square and creating a three-dimensional space for activities.
The main building is a space that connects the interior and exterior. Visitors can enter through a dimly lit cave, leading into the tall dining hall, wrapped by the surrounding trees. Then, by traversing an external suspended staircase, they reach the rooftop space, elevated above the treetops, offering a panoramic view of the mountains. Alternatively, visitors can ascend via a spiral tower to the highest point and cross a skybridge to reach the rooftop. These two intertwined paths allow movement between the building and the forest, offering a layered, immersive experience.
Four white buildings are arranged along the mountaintop contour, while six treehouses are hidden among the pine trees, resembling an ancient matrix that encircles the central plaza, creating a surreal spatial relationship. The architecture, with its primitive geometric forms, window openings, and large blank wall surfaces reflecting the swaying shadows of the trees, becomes a part of the environment.
The pavilion are located in the valley, hidden on the opposite side of the mountaintop. The pavilion retreats behind cedar trees, appearing like a fleeting white structure in the forest, with its geometric roof floating among the trees.
Architecture is more than simple construction. Through the organization of spatial forms and order, controlling the tension and release of emotions, it transcends materiality and creates poetry. We never overlook nature, allowing light and air to permeate the building.
