Mihope Tower

I ve always been with a dream that it would be niceto build a house in the Northwest. I work mostly onconstruction renovation projects, but what if itcould be true? When I returned to the foot of HelanMountain three years after the renovation of MihopeChateau, I was still shocked by the magnificence ofnature. Due to the requirements of the fire code, awater tower to be built should be by the Chateau, tosolve its water pressure problem of extinguishingand protection. Based on the previous goodcooperation experience, the owner wanted to entrustme to design this strange-sounding annex, which maybe a distinct opportunity for me as I had never beeninvolved in such a project. The building height of the Chateau is 21 meters. According to the code requirements, the height ofthe water tower must be higher than the Chateaubuildings to meet the water supply needs forextinguishing and protection, so the location isparticularly important. After being at the site, theheight and volume of the water tower will inevitablycome into the view from any perspective in thefuture. It s too big and obtrusive. I thought it would bebetter if I didn t cover it. But the connectionbetween the water tower and the building isinterdependent, that is, the building of the winecastle must be with the water tower. The height ofthe water tower is an unavoidable problem, so thisseemingly temporary structure cannot be consideredas a temporary building. How to make the water tower look not isolated andnot abrupt? This question kept hovering in my minduntil I saw an aerial photo in my ipad on the planeback to Shanghai. Yeah, why can t we make the established irrigationpond a view of the water tower? It would be as ifthe water tower has been there for a long time! Wouldn t that make the two interdependent, Isn tdesign inherently and universally connected? Isn tthe existence and form of design the result of aspecific connection between its internal elementsand a certain connection, interaction and dependencewith other things around it? If we go on like this,why was the water tower built here? It is becausethere is a wine castle building here that needs tomeet the fire code; why is the winery building builthere? Why are the winery buildings built here? Because there are vineyards here to meet the needsof winemaking; why are the vines planted here? Whyare the vines planted here? Because the vines needsufficient sunlight to grow and the Helan Mountainsblock the wind and sand to form a unique climate;why is there such a large irrigation pond here? Itis because the vines need sufficient water toirrigate. From the Helan Mountains to the vineyards to theirrigation ponds to the architecture of the wineryand then to the water tower. The process unfoldsfrom this interconnectedness. Thus, I found theanswer let the water tower participate in thewhole ecosystem, and make the irrigation pond andthe water tower become each other s landscape. When we fall into a fixed thinking aboutarchitectural forms, the traditional impression of awater tower might be four pillars holding up a watertank. Can we think outside the inherent thinking andgive a new meaning to the water tower? Brewing wine is a complex process, requiringplanting, harvesting, pressing, fermentation, barrelculture, bottling, etc. They are interrelated andcannot be separated. Is it not the same with people? Need to grow, learn, practice, trial and error,perception, harvest results to experience a richerlife. What if the experience of life is condensed in thissmall shell and a window of dialogue with HelanMounts are established?