Text description provided by the architects
Aote Boyue Mansion in Jinan is the top-tier product of Xuhui's CIFI-7 series in the historic spring city, developed by Shandong Xuhui Yinshengtai Group, landscape by Weimar Design's Chengdu office, architecture by Shanghai Tianhua, and built by Suzhou Jinchang Landscape, on a 32,016-square-metre site opened in 2022. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's argument that changing life requires changing space, the team embedded Xuhui's upgraded magnetic gathering field concept into a forested, all-age community that accommodates post-pandemic domestic life and regional shared space. The entrance is a symmetrical art pool flanked by dense trees, evoking a gorge; two gilded guardian lions and building facades that echo mountain ridges frame the ritual approach. An interior water court uses stepping stones, mirror pools and jumping jets, with LED curtains that blend art and technology. At the rear, a mature crape myrtle rises from a layered water screen as the spiritual core of the site, gathering the city's genius in one composed image. The children's gathering field is themed starry sky illusion, Jinan's first semi-open forest rocket dream factory, arranged in two levels: an upper oxygen platform threaded by a 100-metre children's running track that lets kids walk among the treetops, and a lower zone with a starry library, playful blackboards and planetary exploration stations designed to build creativity, language and problem-solving. Beyond the arrival grove, the art spring landscape living-room trellis takes its form from Jinan's spring culture, enclosing a semi-open room that releases Xuhui's shared, inclusive, diverse and open community philosophy while letting landscape flow naturally outward. A sunlit lawn and a forest wellness running loop connect building and nature. The western main court is fitted with a basketball court and health track as an all-age, all-day, all-view social forestry space, with shaded seating under the trees for listening, walking, resting and reflecting. It is the first integrated demo-plus-master-plan project between Xuhui and the team in Jinan, combining respect for site memory, the client's gathering-field philosophy and residents' lived experience into a forested community refuge that wraps body and mind in an immersive, everyday social landscape.