Botanical Garden Expert Apartment / Tumushi Architects

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Xi'an, China
  • Architects: Tumushi Architects
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  1400
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2018
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Chao Zhang
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Zheyong Steel
  • Lead Architect: Qili Yang, Yan Bai
Botanical Garden Expert Apartment / Tumushi Architects - Image 2 of 19
Bird View from South to North. Image © Chao Zhang

Scenery and orientation
Located in the experimental nursery area of the Qinling National Botanical Garden, the expert apartment is an accommodation building for botanists to conduct field research. To the north of the site, the building is separated from Round Hill Road by a green buffer zone. Further north, it is the Central Shaanxi Plain with fields and path. To the south of the site, the sight cross gentle land of nearby village.

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Bird View from North to South. Image © Chao Zhang

About one kilometer, a range of mountain climbs steeply, and lies in front of you. It seems to be a long scroll of Chinese painting, stacked in layers, slowly extending and paved in front of eyes.Regardless of orientation and scenery, the key view of the site is to face south. Therefore, the building is taken as a viewfinder, and each major space owns the southern scenery, which is a solid design strategy that we arrived site in the first time. How does the building see and be seen in such a beautiful natural environment? It became the question for our next thoughts.

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Top View. Image © Chao Zhang
Botanical Garden Expert Apartment / Tumushi Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows
© Chao Zhang

Morphogenesis
The expert apartment has three floors. At the first and second floors, it is separated by three independent boxes with same size. The program of each boxes consists of eight individual dwelling units with balconies. The opening of facade faces south to ensure that each space has a southern scenery and daylight. However, boxes rotate slightly in different direction, which brings nuances of view. Scenery, in some way, is also different. The three boxes are connected on the second floor by a traffic corridor.

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Concept

And the corridor is two-way transparent, bringing a two-way scenery between the north and south.On top of those boxes, the third floor is a long folded volume that connects the buildings together. The Inside of long folded volume is a public space, and the south façade of volume is fixed by a floor-to-ceiling glazing where experts can dine, drink tea and enjoy the long scroll of scenery. The long volume attaches to the north, so the roof of three boxes remains on the south side. Naturally, the remaining of three roofs become open terrace for the public space. Due to position of higher place, the view is almost unobstructed.The scenery of the Qinling Mountains is solid, but the orientation, height and length of the viewing are different, which brings a different scenery experience. The expert apartment completed its morphogenesis as a viewfinder. 

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Part of South View. Image © Chao Zhang
Botanical Garden Expert Apartment / Tumushi Architects - Image 11 of 19
South View. Image © Chao Zhang

Material and construction
The choice of facade materials is still a continuation of concept of the viewfinder. Silver metal panel is used to wrap entire building. The expert apartment looks like a temporary installation that gently touch the ground as if it could be removed at any time. Horizontal lines of metal panel façade weakens the visual height of the building. In the detail, the construction of hidden nails also strengthens overall sense of the whole building.

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Part of View. Image © Chao Zhang

Conclusion
The strategy of expert apartment design is to respond to two design elements of the site and function through a distinct concept. This distinct concept brings a succinct selection of spatial operations and material detail design. Furthermore, it ultimately brings an honest and readable building. For us, it is the answer to how does the building see and be seen in beautiful environment. 

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Part of View. Image © Chao Zhang
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Part of View. Image © Chao Zhang

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Project location

Address:Qinling National Botanical Garden, Xi'an, Shanxi, China

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Botanical Garden Expert Apartment / Tumushi Architects" 19 Apr 2019. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/912263/botanical-garden-expert-apartment-tumushi-architects> ISSN 0719-8884

Part of North Night View. Image © Chao Zhang

植物园专家公寓 / 土木石建筑

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