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Architects: Chengdu Wide Horizon Investment Group
- Area: 880 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:Jia Liu, Shi Chen, Chengdu Wide Horizon Investment Group
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Architectural Design: HC+2 Studio of Product R&D Center, Chengdu Wide Horizon Investment Group
Text description provided by the architects. The Greenhouse Restaurant is built on Luxes’ Island – an urban retreat destination in Chengdu. The island, situating in Chengdu Luxelakes Eco-city, is built with various outdoor sports facilities and entertainment buildings. All these buildings are bespoke-designed to create abundant spatial experience and have become kind of landscape architecture in the Luxes’ Island.
Project Background: An experiment of green building
This project is one of the 1st Sichuan Provincial Green Building Innovative Design Competition projects, which was open for global competition on May of 2016, and closed on August of 2016. Finally, SADI (Sichuan Provincial Architectural Design and Research Institute) stands out of more than 110 teams and 350 designers. However, due to changes of functions and operating company, the project has to be redesigned by HC+2 Studio form Product R&D Center of Chengdu Wide Horizon Investment Group (client) and A3 Studio of SADI. Now, this project has been operating since June of 2018.
As the largest restaurant on the Luxes’ Island, the Greenhouse Restaurant must achieve more goals other than its basic F&B function, namely, the goal to build a experimental landscape architecture with traditional construction material, and the goal to build a “green” building. Local soil is used to construct the rammed earth wall, which can increase privacy and decrease interior cost. The rammed wall can make the indoor space warm in winter and cool in summer.
The project is a temporary building, which requires strict cost control; therefore, many economical materials and work methods are adopted in this project, such as ordinary stone, single corrugated steel plate, polycarbonate sheet, and non-reinforced concrete.
Because the operator (Sunyuki) requests all dining space to be private dining rooms, the floor plan is designed like a “flower”- public space is positioned in the middle and private dining rooms are scattered on the “petal”.
The public space is not only a traffic core to connect with the main entrance and the central greenhouse on the 2nd floor, but also a main exhibition space. In case of major events, some private dining rooms can be open and connected with the main public space to create a bigger space.The petal-like massing could better blend the architecture with landscape. Each private dining room is meticulously oriented. Its floor-to-ceiling windows can offer expansive view, and rammed earth walls eliminated interference.
The project location guarantees its expansive view to the lake and island, so some iconic timber structured viewing volume are added on 2nd floor. In order for attracting visitors to go up to the 2nd floor, the green building design method “stack effect” is adopted in the atrium.
In order to address the site conditions and meet the complicated requirements of space, material and green building technology, the “integration” language is used everywhere: In order to address the site conditions and meet the complicated requirements of space, material and green building technology, the “integration” language is used everywhere:
Space integration
The two-storey high central core integrates the 1F and 2F, accelerates air flow, lights up the interior with sunshine, and eliminates the oppression feeling in 1F.
Material integration
Diversified materials, e.g. rammed earth wall, timber structure, stone are integrated in the restaurant.
Integration between architecture and landscape
The project site adjoins the Luxes’ Garden, so the need to integrate the building with the garden landscape was considered at the beginning of design.
For the interior, wooden furniture is integrated with the rammed earth and wooden structure. The subtle combination of traditional materials endows the interior with tranquility and delicacy.
