Text description provided by the architects
Longfor Zijin Yuanzhu in Nanjing sits on the southern slope of the famous Purple Mountain, a site blessed with natural and cultural heritage. The design pursues the ideal of living beside a stream beneath the forest, approaching mountain dwelling from its essence through layered, hard, pure straight-line language that expresses the rhythm and stratification of the mountain. Trees and flowing water establish the foundational order of mountain, nature and life. The south courtyard features a 1.7-meter elevation change treated as a square small courtyard with layered water elements that cascade through rich terraces, producing a flowing, vivid mountain-forest effect. An abstract sculpture of three peaks represents the Ningzhen, Xiaomao and Tianbao peaks of Purple Mountain, joined like an abstract dragon, its colors shifting under evening light. An L-shaped pergola at the top of the south courtyard embraces and overlooks the entire courtyard like a viewing platform on the summit of Purple Mountain, blending interior and exterior with high living utility. The north courtyard is a sunken seating area with a long, narrow water feature that draws the eye toward a connecting corridor, deepening the spatial sense. Lower planting and hardscape are clean and precise, while upper trees are relaxed and sculptural, a restrained and striking combination. The entry design broke through the original 13-meter gate limitation by unifying the landscape and architecture into a single 40-meter interface, combining glass display windows, a logo feature wall and perimeter wall. The stone double-layer cutout logo wall with backlit letters conveys the depth and craft expected of the Yuanzhu product line.
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