Zhengzhou, lanxi on court

Lanxi Shangyuan is a residential landscape in the North Long Lake central business sub-centre of Jinshui District, Zhengzhou, Henan, developed by Henan Zhengzhou New District Construction Investment, with landscape design and build by Beijing Shunjie Landscape. The project draws its narrative from the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, the legendary poetry and wine party of Wang Xizhi and the Eastern Jin literati, translating the classical rites of floating cups along a winding stream into a contemporary residential estate. The south entry gate is the community's primary image and the expression of the scheme's tone along a north-south axis; a central water court repeats the flowing-cup ritual, while an east-west axis unfolds as a sequence of atmospheric scenes, named for watering the book, listening to rain among flowers, a clear fragrant stream, composing springs, awakening stones and harmonising light. Together the nine courtyard gardens read as a handscroll that depicts a poetic life. Construction quality is pursued at an exceptional level. The Jinsheng-blue stone cladding at the south gate exceeds the normal capacity of standard keel and anchor systems; gravity and pull-out tests were carried out, special dry-hanging tools were used, and weld and connector strengths verified. The large water feature over the garage roof is supported by a 3.5-metre-high, 22-metre-long crib wall filled with expanded clay. In the lobby, ironwork and stone are inlaid with precise jointing; a large ink-jade water feature is hand-cut from two boulders, joined through perforations with thickened, sealed joints to prevent leakage. The grating walls of the Heguang Pavilion are assembled from roughly one thousand 0.5-millimetre-thick triangular prisms, cut and welded by hand. Curved planting beds are cut, numbered, trial-assembled and calibrated so that joints flow and meet the paving in plane-to-section transitions. Planting combines formal, natural and cloud-pruned modes, featuring Chinese tallow, hackberry, ginkgo, zelkova and cherry for a year-round seasonal picture.