Header: Xiaobin Lv
The Wuxiang Mountain National Forest Park, located in Nanjing’s Lishui District, in China, is home to lush vegetation and beautiful scenery. One side of it is covered by a mountain road surrounded by towering Metasequoia forest, while the other side is made of a continuous mountain with dense bamboo forests. Due to the need for the development and renewal of the scenic area, the park’s administration decided to rebuild the original forestry office space and expand the functions of small-scale sales services, tourist consultation, and others.
Under the influence of the beautiful natural conditions and the client’s wishes, Mix Architecture set out to create a modern base that is able to thoroughly support visitors, workers and the landscape itself.
The design choices
The designers divided the space into two L-shaped areas covered by an angled sloping roof: one for the internal office spaces, and the other for the external tourist service areas. These two roof forms overlap and twist around an inner courtyard, forming deep eaves and creating a layered form that recalls the stacked forms of mountain forests.
The landscape platforms and folded roofs are the main defining elements of the project. As they rise with the terrain, they align with the mountains behind the site and make the façade less visible. From the road, visitors see a series of terraces following the terrain, with layered roofs stretching above them.
In the entrance and public areas, flat skylights and trapezoidal openings bring daylight from above. This supports spaces that do not depend on a wide façade or direct views out to the landscape.
Materials that complement the landscape
For the roof and landscape terraces, which are the most visible parts of the project, the designers used blue tiles and rubble stone. Finer details, such as the glass and window edges, are placed deeper in the shadows made by these materials. This keeps the textured roof and terrace surfaces in focus while making small construction irregularities less noticeable.
Construction strategy
Because of the short construction schedule and the uncertainty of the building process, the designers introduced several strategies to reduce possible problems on site. The building uses a common concrete frame structure, while the large gap between the roof and the suspended ceiling absorbs structural depth, construction tolerances and equipment space.
Project information
Architects: Mix Architecture
Design Team: Ziye Wu, Siyuan Ni, Suning Zhou, Tao Tang, Bin Peng, Yu Xin
Construction Company: Jiangsu Construction Engineering Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd.
Construction Team: Fang Zhuang, Juan Chen, Kai Chen, Haoliang Fan, Kaihui Wang, Zhenyu Zhang, Yajun Wu, Zhengqing Dai
Location: Wuxiang Mountain National Forest Park, Lishui District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province
Date: June 2021
Area: 977 ㎡
