Metasequoia Grove, Suzhou, China
Metasequoia Grove, Suzhou, China

Located at the west end of Shanwan Village, a typical waterside village of the Jiangnan region, situated on the vast swamp plain of Taihu, the project is more of a waterside landscape that immerses into its natural context, eventually becoming part of nature. It delivers joyful moments by the water, and peaceful nature experiences where architecture enables new ways of seeing the landscape.

A grove of metasequoia trees onsite, standing by an enormous expanse of water, becomes the only nature skyline in this plain terrain. The forms of the metasequoia trees are abstracted and translated into a purely geometric architectural language, a pyramidal frustum, and are applied to the Restaurant of Metasequoia Grove as a featuring icon and a modular inspiration for the design.

The pyramidal frustum module takes three sizes and forms small-medium-large modular. Three different scales of modules mix and cluster together, forming a continuous canopy structure that traces an artificial forest profile within nature to simulate the natural substances’ generative process. Each pyramidal frustum module is topped by a skylight that allows natural light to enter the architecture more moderately.

Client: Bluetown Group
Landscape Architect: Zhejiang LEON Engineering Consulting
Interior Designer: Shanghai Yishantang Decoration Design
Operation Consultant: Suzhou Bluetown Cultural Tourism
Photos: IN BETWEEN