Shanxiao Sales Pavilion, Chongqing | aoe

Chongqing is a poetic land with half of the city, half of the mountain and trees cover thousands of miles. The project is located in Nanshan, Chongqing. Nanshan located on the south bank of the Yangtze River in Chongqing which has a wealth of tourism resources including natural scenery, cultural landscape, and specialties. In recent years, Nanshan has successively appeared some commercial buildings with cultural connotations such as bookstores and homestays. These buildings are simple in design and distinctive in shape, which has made Nanshan gradually become a synonym for elegant and introverted. And its artistic conception corresponds to Tao 's poetry.

In people's haunt I built my cot;
Of wheel's and hoof's noise, I hear not.
How can it leave on me no trace?
Secluded heart makes a secluded place.
I pick fence-side asters at will;
Carefree I see the southern hill.
The mountain air's fresh day and night;
Together birds go home in flight.
What revelation at this view?
Words fail me if I try to tell you.
——Yuanming Tao

Therefore, we refine the traditional architectural culture and natural landscape of Nanshan as the main tempo, and use modern technical language and artistic creation techniques to transform it into our architectural language, so that visitors can experience the artistic conception of “ hidden in the nature”.

The entire project has two parts, the sales office and the commercial part. The sales office has a small scale but exquisite and delicate. It is naturally engraved and hidden in nature, thus highlighting the concept of “seclusion”. The facade uses the perforated plate as the louver to protect the sunshine, and the shape of louver is inspired by the cloud of Nanshan. The perforated leaves float around the curtain wall. It resembles a long scroll landscape painting, and its changes show the shape of the clouds and fog that stretches in the Nanshan. The glass curtain walls with gradual mist and perforated louvers are integrated so that the whole building seems floating in the clouds. At the same time, there are spraying device will create fog around the building every day. It makes the natural fog become another layer facade for the building, creating a wonderland of Nanshan. The building is not only an architecture but a cultural event.

For the commercial architecture, we researched the characteristics and scale of the mountain building and abandoned the majestic created by the large volume and the large scale. We combined the living space of the residents through the appropriate scale and open and relaxed corridor space, neighboring habits, modern literary and artistic life needs to create more dialogues between people and people, between people and nature. The pleasant scale makes people feel as if they are in nature and walk in the alleys, thus staying in it becomes a kind of returning to the original, leisurely and unique enjoyment. The choice of building facade color comes from traditional dwellings and blends in with the natural environment. The choice of the color of the building facade comes from the traditional dwellings. The light and shadow effect formed by the light on the pure "white box" gives the viewer a pure visual enjoyment. It stands in harmony with the natural environment and disappears into everything.

Lead Architects: Larry Wen

Photo credits: Huang Ligang                

Additional Credits

Design Team:  Liu Chen,Li Pengyong, Niu Zhuojun,Yang Kaiqi

Clients: Lianfa & Sunac

Engineering: Chongqing Changxiaanji Architectural Design Co., Ltd