ZhonghaiYunchen

COHL Yunchen in Hangzhou is a 2,000-square-metre landscape project located in Binjiang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, designed in April 2018 and completed in September 2018. Its design intent is to seek the beauty of nature and to dwell as if inside a natural museum, savouring a secluded paradise. The project captures easily overlooked natural scenes and extracts light and shadow as its design language in order to build a quiet, natural retreat that blocks outside noise while keeping light shadows, tree shadows, cloud shadows and water reflections. An ambiguous, half-concealed space is created where grated tree shadows and the sound of gurgling water compose a sensory experience; skylight is deliberately admitted through openings in the wall, casting the water red and aligning with swaying tree forms as a living painting. At dusk, the colour of light, tree shadows and the sound of water settle at precisely the right pitch. A winding, flowing viewing route moves through sky light and cloud shadow, with the building facade reflected in the water, overhanging roofs giving shade, ripples spreading and flowers blooming, inviting the visitor to linger. Stepping out from a side door onto the landscape reception pavilion, the pavilion itself floats like a drifting cloud shadow, composing a scene of pale clouds brushing the hills. Its irregular geometric form reads as an abstract art sculpture from afar, while up close the staggered supports of the pavilion convey a light, effortless quality; receiving a guest inside is like sitting above the clouds. Looking back across the whole space, the visitor does not want to leave.