Silver
Arch Design Award
Winner
in
2022
'22
Danxia World Natural Heritage Gateway
Designed by
Haobo Wei,Jingson Xie
Title:
Function:
Location:
Designer:
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Team Members:
Danxia World Natural Heritage Gateway
Landscape Architecture
Chishui City China
Haobo Wei,Jingson Xie
Yudang Luo, Yuanping Li
Photo Credits:
westline studio
Copyrights:
westline studio
The base is located in the V-shaped canyon area at the entrance to the core scenic area of the Danxia World Natural Heritage Site of Foguang Rock in Chishui, southwest China; flanked by rushing streams and bright red cliffs; through an arched cave door high above is the magnificent Danxia landscape. The locals have a custom of worshipping the Buddha facing the red cliffs. The project aims to abstract the character of the site and create a ceremonial landscape entrance space: the base slope is treated as a continuous cluster of steps into the cave entrance, forming a visually striking and ceremonial red square.
And natural elements such as streams and rocks condense into the landscape system of the entrance space: the arched entrance separates multiple paths, the corridor on the left echoes the dynamic stream, and the stone box under the mountainous roof of the building on the right is a rainwater collection system + light system + tree yard, etc. The stone box is surrounded by a flexible leisure space corresponding to the natural water courtyard, light courtyard and tree courtyard, and the stone piers and pillars supporting the system are reminiscent of the Danxia stone forest. The group of stone boxes and tree courtyards form facilities such as a visitor reception hall, exhibition hall and tea room.
The materials for this project come from the fact that there is a river on top of the mountain. When flash floods erupted, Danxia stones of various sizes were transported downstream by the river. Danite is a sandstone with a high porosity and is very easy to cut. The large pieces of sandstone collected by workers are cut on site for easy transport and the stones are processed in different sizes to suit different building uses. Fine gravels are used for paving. The stones used for the support system masonry are cut to brick size and their high porosity is suitable for traditional local mortar masonry operations.