The City and the World

West-Line Studio · Architects: Haobo Wei, Jingsong Xie, Yutan Luo and Ke Zhou.

Client: Chishui Tourism Development Co., Ltd. Landscape area: 22,000 sqm. Building area: 514 sqm.

The 10,000-hectare Bamboo Forest, characterised by the presence of the Bamboo Sea (Phyllostachys pubescens), aims to preserve this unique environment using limited local technologies with a deep respect for the bamboo forest.

The local culture and tourism department decided to establish the Bamboo Forest, together with a landscape project, in order to promote a different kind of tourism, able to enhance awareness about the protection of the original landform and autochthonous species.

The programme includes the main entrance to the bamboo forest, a tea pavilion and a larger landscape project involving elevated boardwalks through the forest. These allow visitors to experience the forest without affecting the environment. The forest aims to have a strong educational significance.

Main Gate: 162 sqm. Tea Pavilion: 65 sqm. Boardwalk and stairs: 287 sqm.

The shape of the Tea Pavilion is a deformation of the Main Entrance Gate. It creates a direct visual connection between the two main elements, becoming an important node.

The Gate aims to “activate” the bamboo while at the same time being hidden in the forest, creating an iconic entrance for the forest.

The two buildings and the boardwalk system are constructed to maximise protection of the local natural environment. Tourists can appreciate the unique characteristics of the bamboo sea without damaging the forest.

The boardwalk goes through the Main Gate, connecting it to the Tea Pavilion.

Location maps: China, Beijing, Chishui Region, Guiyang, Chishui City, Chishui Lake and the project site within the 10,000-hectare Bamboo Forest.

Plan labels: stairs, boardwalk, main entrance / Entrance Gateway, Tea Pavilion, road and pond. Drawings: roof plan and south-west elevation. Photograph: musician playing the Chinese guzheng.

The forest’s main entrance has been designed as a dense assembly of vertical lines. The idea was to create, in the middle of the forest, a denser cluster, which can be randomly intercepted in the bamboo sea.

The Main Gate is characterised by a bamboo facade, concrete structure, coloured glass system and wood / metal boardwalk. The drawings show front and back elevations.

Because of the presence of oil inside, and a mixture of water and sugar, the bamboo has been steam-treated to take out the oil and dead decay. Since local equipment only allows the bamboo to be steamed to a maximum length of 6 m, it must be divided into two parts, 5.5 m each.

Hand-made galvanised metal joints become a characteristic mark in the main entrance gate’s facade. The joint detail specifies a diameter of 70 mm.

Architects elaborated a whole system, from the steaming treatment to the joint design, in order to create the possibility of recycling the bamboo pieces, which can easily be dismantled, moved, replaced and reused somewhere else.

The Main Gate introduces coloured glass which filters the light, creating a different perception of the surrounding bamboo lines. By crossing the gate, visitors feel like entering a different dimension.

Even with the presence of the glass roof, which protects the bamboo from rain, architects had to deal with problems of high humidity and fluctuations in temperature, which characterise the area of Chishui.

The gate is hidden in the Bamboo Sea and interacts with the particular and various weather conditions of the area — sun, thick fog, rain, wind and snow — which make the architecture unstable and flexible.

The architecture is based on a full understanding of the character of the Bamboo Sea and aims to play with weather elements.

A natural water pond, under the main entrance gate, collects rainwater and spring water. The pond was originally a big pit, paved with cow dung and soil to prevent water loss. Cow dung also helps maintain the biological environment by providing nutrients.

The pond helps create fog due to the differing temperatures, especially in the early morning and at sunset, or during winter and rainy days. When sun and fog happen at the same time, the gate looks completely embedded in the Bamboo Sea.

The elevated boardwalks are supported by a red fair-faced concrete structure. The paving is made of anticorrosive bamboo plywood and the railings are made of rust-proof black metal.

After the Tea Pavilion the path becomes steep, mainly made up of steps, to bring visitors up to the mountain.

Photograph captions: front view of the Main Entrance facing the road; top view of the pond and boardwalk connecting the Tea Pavilion with the Main Gate; boardwalk system with the Tea Pavilion in the background.