ShiWu: A Harmonious Blend of Architecture and Landscape

Rui Zhao's Award-Winning Design Emphasizes Interactivity and Scenery

The design's innovation lies in the control of the relationship between architecture, interior, and landscape. The plain interior atmosphere further emphasizes the relationship between people and landscapes. The rebuilt building blocks open to the sea by a trapezoidal landscape platform, offering a rich visual experience. The design inspiration comes from Chinese gardens, varying sceneries with changing viewpoints by making circuitous paths indoors. This enhances the interactivity between people inside the space and the scenery outside the window.

The project, formerly known as a restaurant opening for public business, has a typical vintage architectural style of the 70’s and 80’s. It enjoys a relatively favorable geographic location and an extensive view with the windows facing the boundless ocean. The owner of the project mainly expected to repair and refine the building’s appearance, combining with new functional requirements and responding to the surroundings, so that the indoor and outdoor can be a unified temperament to enable the building to integrate better into the environment.

The design challenge for the architectural and landscape integrity control was how to balance the relationship and coordination between architecture and landscape. This was the biggest challenge for the team. However, the final project in the use function, the relationship with the natural landscape, and people first found the right balance.

The design concept comes from the traditional Chinese Gardens with two highlights. First, the designer tried to produce a twisting effect in the spatial path setup. This enables people to dynamically connect to the outside view within various locations and space. Then for the color scheme of the building and its interior, the designer used the color grey to reunite all the elements in harmony. The human activity inside and scenery outside are therefore highlighted through the contrasting effect.

This Design was awarded Golden in A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award in 2016. Golden A' Design Award is granted to marvelous, outstanding, and trendsetting creations that reflect the designer's prodigy and wisdom. They are venerated products and bright ideas that advance art, science, design, and technology, embodying extraordinary excellence and significantly impacting the world with their desirable characteristics.