AIRICE Future Agriculture Cultural Tourism Town / PMT Partners

Curated by 韩双羽 - HAN Shuangyu

Interior Designers: PMT Partners
Area: 200000 m²
Year: 2020
Photographs:Zhe Zeng, Weihao Zhao

Text description provided by the architects. AIRICE Future Agriculture Cultural Tourism Town is a vision of future agriculture, based on 5G technology, big data, artificial intelligence, UAVs, and other front-end technical support. It is also an agriculture cultural tourism demonstration pilot that combines eco-tourism, industrial demonstrations, and technology model promotion. Therefore, at the beginning of accepting the commission to design the project, the concept of a “Future ALL” was proposed, that is, to reflect the futuristic in all links, which includes: Future Agriculture, Future Landscape & Future Life. It strives to show the impact of cutting-edge technologies on the world of material production.

Therefore, at the site of automated material production, a series of constructions are placed on the key nodes of the main tour route. These simple shapes not only echo the geometry in the farm but also embody the function of visiting and resting sites and show an unknown power, a power beyond human reach.

From the beginning of the entrance gate, the regular tourist trail unfolds along the farmland pattern formed according to the automated production mode, extending and connecting a series of landscape nodes. The trail system and landscape nodes will be implemented in phases according to the overall plan. The scene presented by the aerial perspective is the completed part of the first phase, and the construction of subsequent content will be carried out according to the general plan.

The design of the construction constitutes the initial design concept through the poetic idea of words and pictures, trying to explore the possible relationship between material production and consumption and the status of a spiritual core under the field of extreme technological production. These constructions reflect imagination about technology, the future, and the unknown.

The main entrance gate adopts a variable cross-section steel structure to form an upward-growing shape and a 30-meter-long visually closed pedestrian corridor letting the sunshine in . The intersection of the column and the diagrid rib constitutes a stable mechanical form.As the main gate, its stretched appearance is strongly indicative, symbolizing the vigorous growth of all creatures in the prosperous season. When walking through it, the closed vision and the framed scene at the end are inwardly convergent, creating a sense of ritual of crossing and moving forward to the other end.

The ratio of the width of the columns to the spacing is exactly one to one. When walking through them, the vision can be completely confined between the two rows of columns, while the light on both sides can bleed out gently in the gap, and the view is guided to the beautiful distant scenery, leading viewers to move forward.

Differing from the local materials and construction methods used in the conventional rural projects, the design of this project has adopted “off-site” means. Through the use of modern industrial materials, a large number of highly reflective mirrored stainless steels, and with the floating sense of construction displayed by the hidden structure or cantilever, the poetry of the futuristic is presented.

The circular construction with a diameter of 24 meters is both a cloister and an altar, floating above the fields like something that has fallen from the sky. Through its concise form, it embodies the interpretation of multiple meanings that traverse the past and the present. With those elements, a sense of the seemingly known and the paradoxical “unknown” mystery is created.

Through the reflection of stainless steel, the cubic construction blends into the environment, with blurred outlines and boundaries. Seemingly, it can make people pass through the prominent circular hole in the middle, traverse an invisible wall, and step into another space.

The mirror surface at the edge of the circular hole can create an artificial halo by reflecting the afterglow at sunset. The formation of the halo requires a specific season and a specific angle of incidence of sunlight. Through these deliberate settings, the various forces beyond reach are connected. In the wilderness of production, people have learned the technique of cultivating rice, but they can only wait patiently for the sun to fall into the circle, spilling onto the earth, and nourishing lives.

At the top of the pavilion is an inverted cone, which collects rainwater like a funnel onto a tea table with a smaller inverted cone on the ground. Three small uprights are anchored tangentially to the round edges, and the use of stainless steel conceals them, enabling the top of the funnel to appear to be “floating.” This design and setting contains the meaning of “appreciation.” Unlike most buildings, over here, rainwater is not “excluded” but held in the palm of the hand.The stainless steel material on the top of the pavilion allows viewers to see the surrounding fields when they look up.