Winner of the Merit Award in the 2022 WLA Awards in the Built Small category
Space and Function improvement
Located in the centre of Beijiao, Xianmo Flower Field is a civic park with flowers as the theme. Large areas of seasonal flowers bloom throughout the year. However, the lack of supporting facilities for tourists to rest and stay, it has led to the extremely low utilization rate of the park.
We remodelled the site by placing two sets of bamboo-structured landscape pavilions to not only provide residents with a sheltered space but also hold small events, at the same time, enrich the sightseeing experience and become a landscape landmark with composite functions.
Integration of structure and materials details
Combined the morphological aesthetics of flowers, we first got a “shell-shaped” basic model，the Flower Pavilion and Embrace Pavilion all use the basic model. The spiral line is used as the lofting control line to form the rhythm of the Flower Pavilion’s structure which could create a spatial hierarchy that full of changes. Embrace Pavilion consists of two groups of reverse shell-like shape connected end to end to form a closed loop. Three-dimensional two-way curved surfaces are cantilevered on the structure to achieve a span of 12m. Through the scale change of the shape, a large-scale stage space is created and a small-scale waterfront viewing space is formed and it created a dramatic spatial twist at the transition between the two.
We adopted a curved cantilevered bamboo to form a shell-like shape, which is combined with traditional bamboo weaving skills, and the roof cladding is woven with bamboo strips covered with the Palm Tree Bark. On one hand, the bamboo weaving on the surface provides interesting light and shadow changes and a sun-shading environment for the internal space. On the other hand, as a traditional material for making clothes, the use of palm tree bark further improves the weather resistance of the bamboo pavilion.
Sustainable development
Palm tree bark uses the traditional fixing method of coir rope stitching. Due to the small area of a single piece of Palm Tree Bark, it is very labor-intensive if we fixed it in one piece like a traditional tile roof. therefore,we have adopted a modular prefabrication method—all palm tree bark are prefabricated and sewn into modular units of 1m*1m to form the roof. The palm roof made of similar modules creates a sense of rhythm similar to the
Traditional tile roof
With this method, the material could be processed at the place of origin as the traditional tile, which encourages more left-behind villagers to participate in the production of palm skin and brown rope, thus obtaining more income.
After the completion
Various activities were carried out under the bamboo pavilion: viewing and resting, parent-child entertainment, fitness, and taking pictures, Embrace Pavilion is also used as a performance stage during festivals, therefore, the flower field of Xianmo gathered more popularity.
Flower Field Bamboo Pavilions
Location: Beijiao Town, Shunde District, Foshan City
Design Companies： Atelier cnS, School of Architecture, South China University of Technology
Design Team:
Atelier cnS: Chief Design:Guanqiu Zhong, Hairui Lin, Wenhao Zhang
Lead architect: Guanqiu Zhong, Gang Song, Zhiyuan Zhu
Design team: Hairui Lin, Wenxuan Huang, Li Yang, Longyuan Lu, Zhanchong Deng, Hang Zhao
School of Architecture, South China University of Technology:
Leading teacher: Guanqiu Zhong
Student team: Wenhao Zhang, Wenchu Zhang, Yuhao Huang, Zhixian Tan, Xinyue Gu, Longyuan Lu
Client: Government of Beijiao Town, Foshan City
Images credit: Atelier cnS
Photographer: Siming Wu