The CIFI Wujiang Mansion community is located in the southern part of Wujiang District, Suzhou. This emerging ecological urban area is just 10 km from the center of downtown Wujiang. Its architectural design attempts to inject vitality to the surrounding residential clusters, enliven the local residents and strengthen community cohesion. The buildings are arranged along Luxiang South Road, a main road of the city. A green ecological corridor is found inside the community, which integrates urban green land space resources with the plot itself, extends the boundary of green space and activates this superior urban resource.

▲Master plan

The courtyard, enclosed by different architectural spaces, has been an important spatial component of traditional Chinese architecture for thousands of years. It cultivates and inherits the living habits and aesthetic taste of generations of Chinese people. In this project, we try to further explore the humanistic spirit hidden behind architectural forms and create a design that is tailored to the needs of the times.

▲A pavilion, a bridge and a shallow pond

Each Suzhou garden is a microcosm in which the “architecture” itself does not take up much space. It doesn’t mean that architecture is not important in the garden, but instead, the beauty of the garden lies in the interpenetration and reorganization of architecture and landscape--architecture can be taken as landscape while landscape is also a significant part of architectural design.

▲ Exterior perspective of the front elevation of the Wujiang Mansion

As the future main entrance of this residential area, the Wujiang Mansion is the focus of the residents’ attention. It connects the urban space and represents the style of the area. The design presents a series of pixilated images: the large Chinese-style roof is decomposed into a continuous stretch of eaves and three undulating blocks, each varying in function and scale, either as a skylight or as a second floor loft for office use.

This contributes to the diversity in form and subtle interplay among pavilions in the garden, and it also satisfies the demands for using the space under the eaves in different ways. This open transparent space embraces the surrounding landscape and blurs the boundary between interior and exterior space. It somehow reflects the aesthetic unity of traditional symmetry and modern minimalism.

▲Main entrance of the Wujiang Mansion

In modern architectural design, there is a trend in the rapidly changing modern cities, that is, to make buildings with a lifespan of decades or even centuries serve different requirements of the users in a sensitive market while retaining its features. This is a common challenge faced by architects even at the very beginning. In a relatively short time, the building is required to meet multiple functional requirements such as display and sales, community services, and fitness club. More than ten drafts are made in the early stages of design, just in an attempt to figure out the functional plane of several phases of the construction.

▲F1 layout

▲B1 layout

▲ Profile I

▲ Profile II

Our strategy is to create a flowing space behind the seemingly flat and uniform elevation. Along with courtyards of various sizes, different space enclosures are formed, either for rest or public activities. Right here, people can experience a welcoming and inclusive humanistic environment.

Such design has something in common with the works of several contemporary architects. For example, Bernard Tschumi’s engagement with Parc de la Villette, where dispersed “points are superimposed on lines in the disorderly space, gives each space a unique feature. In one of Junya Ishigami’s works, KAIT Workshop, hundreds of thin columns are well arranged in a flowing plane behind the fading elevation, forming courtyard spaces of various styles, with each being independent yet interconnected with one another.

Techniques like this can further weaken the closed state between spaces, enhance the functional flow and sequence guidance, and ensure proper distribution of traditional spaces such as the front courtyard, middle courtyard and back yard.

▲Inside the Wujiang Mansion

▲North part of the Wujiang Mansion

▲ Courtyard within a yard

▲Rotating staircase

This building method allows the interior space to be arranged layer upon layer and bridge different spaces as a courtyard does. Also, it allows the waterfront landscape to form garden scenery of its own, and realizes the interconnection and integration of internal and external space. Layers of courtyards, both indoors and outdoors, overlay and link with each other. Pavilions, waterside buildings, bridges and other architectural elements form a transitional space on the main urban interface, with public space on one side and private space on another.

▲The entrance space of the Wujiang Mansion

Architecture and landscape have long been relatively independent elements, or even isolating from one another, for they use different language logic to express their own philosophies. In CIFI’s Wujiang Mansion project, Lacime seeks to achieve a balance and interpenetration of architecture and landscape in the same site.

▲Entrance sign in the front yard

▲ Screen wall in the front yard

▲Architectural landscape integration

The unity of architecture and landscape needs to be highlighted in design intent. According to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the masters of modern architecture, the best solution for a building is to try to directly capture the essence of architecture with a plain narrative style, and form a spatial sequence that is separate and connected, simple yet complex. The interior and exterior spaces are also interspersed and interconnected, without a clear boundary between the architecture and landscape. In this project, through the barely outlined glass curtain wall, we can enjoy progressive landscape views. It is as if we have traveled all the way from hills to bridges and waters, and then come across a leisure space where we are able to take a sip of tea against the piano melody and fragrant flowers. It is far more than just getting closer to natural sceneries and embracing more elegant views on the road ahead.

▲Main front yard views

▲ Views in the southern yard

▲ A swimming pool and sunken yard

Landscape is hidden in the architecture and the architecture becomes an integral part of the landscape. We have expanded the landscape space inside the building with plant landscaping technique. The atrium, which rises from the B.M floor without a rooftop, allows light to penetrate onto the glass curtain wall, reflecting the Zen-like plant sceneries again and again. Like a halo of lights converging on a diamond, the landscape spreads out to all sides of the building. Privacy and security is guaranteed by enclosed spaces such as the swimming pool in the basement, the sunken courtyard beyond the glass curtain wall and three vertical green walls featuring a natural form of landscape and floating clouds through the layout of plants of different colors and leaf types.

▲The courtyard, water landscape and buildings echo each other at every level

The creation of Chinese-style architecture is never a simple imitation of architectural symbols. Likewise, modern architecture is not merely a pile of glass curtain walls and metal panels--it is more about the expression of profound cultural connotation and historical heritage of a building, the inheritance of the spirit behind the traditional symbols, and the interpretation of the development and changes of traditional spaces.

▲ Partial elevation of the Wujiang Mansion

Architects Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky express their dissatisfaction with Walter Gropius’ architecture technique in their book Transparency, arguing that the extensive use of glass curtain walls on the Bauhaus school buildings is pointless, as only the intricate metal hinges and structures are visible through the glass. In their theory, Gropius simply takes into account the material property of glass, namely, its transparency, and he fails to take the wall surface as something that can describe a certain phenomenon.

The glass curtain wall can provide a sense of horizontal and vertical extension for the building. Also, it can give the viewer a visual impression of several layers of space and elements penetrating each other through the glass without ruining their unique features. The elevation and plan design of this project adopts this architectural approach and gives a stretching force to the glass wall, so that we can see more through the transparent wall.

▲ Retractable screens

▲Screen pattern details (partial)

A full implementation of this design idea is feasible by simplifying the structure of the glass curtain wall as much as possible and hiding it deep between the indoor and outdoor spaces. This spatial effect is achieved by the use of the shop-window ribbed glass curtain wall and astylar corner (inserting the slot at the upper and lower ends). The overhanging aluminum eaves are installed with concave light trough arrayed vertically with the glass surface. As a result, the reflective glass on the roof offers a seamless connection between the inside and the external environment.

In addition to that, another outer layer of the architecture is built outside the glass wall. The layer consists of an array of retractable screens, which not only adds depth to the building elevation, but also further weakens the visual obstruction caused by the glass partition. On the front elevation facing east, the screens reflect the morning sunlight and cast a rich variety of shadows. This clever design provides a solution to energy efficiency and enhances the cultural quality of the building too.

▲ Details of the curtain wall and eaves (tail portion)

▲ Details of the curtain wall and eaves (end portion)

It is also worth noting that minimalist architectural language cannot be separated from the meticulous management of structure details. Well-organized intricate details enable the building to easily cope with complex climatic conditions. The proposal to introduce a roof drainage system was rejected at the beginning of the design, in a bid to ensure the slim size of the ends of the four-meter roof overhang. Then how to make organized drainage possible in the project? The architect turns to the roof drainage slope inside, and the roof overhang is designed into two sections--the first section extends from the concrete column, functioning as a concrete bridging piece and gutter; and the bridging piece reaches out to the steel outrigger, thus realizing organized drainage and meeting the original request for architecture modeling design. There are many other such cases of particular treatment in the project. These structure details are the key to structural stability despite the weathering of water and wind.

The final building elevation does not only present a certain architectural form but also features an integration of architecture and landscape garden. Among this, a shallow depth-of-field artwork is epitomized by the vigorous and concise structure, abstract and simplistic Chinese screens, outer scenic furniture, lights and shadows inside, and visitors participating in indoor and outdoor activities. This landscape design gathers the wisdom of all the fellow professionals who participated in the CIFI Wujiang Mansion project from design to inauguration. For Suzhou locals, it is a great example of the dialogue across time and space between the modern life and people’s aesthetic sentiment for garden landscape, and it has become a microcosm of life for residents in Wujiang as well.