Text description provided by the architects
Zhenzhen Zhu is a delivered residential landscape in the North Long Lake district of Zhengzhou, Henan, designed by L&A Design's Shanghai office Project Seven Group for client Zhengzhou Zhenghong Jiuze Industrial. Set amid the city's most prestigious luxury market, the project deliberately moves beyond surface spectacle toward a deeper notion of luxuriousness that is also literary and secluded. A W.B. Yeats quote, embroidered cloths of light, frames the poetic programme: ceremonial arrival signals identity, while warm lamplight evokes the ideal of a great hermit dwelling within the city. Inside the gate, a sheltered garden is gathered by covered walkways and feature walls that recompose sightlines toward the spiritual marker of the site, the light-chasing butterfly sculpture. Plants and water craft a benevolent microclimate, so that on a weary evening the resident's tension dissolves among bubbling springs and greenery. The glass-glazed butterfly sculpture was developed by the artist Tu Juan from the design concept, distilling freedom and lightness into a simple form that expresses the drama of emergence from the chrysalis. Beyond a tree-lined path, the reception garden calms the visitor into an empty, meditative state, following the Gu Xin Zhu theme. A double-pergola composition pairs a main social hall with a side gallery of seating nooks that frame a water lawn court. As a future central garden of the wider neighbourhood, it combines with the clubhouse below under a pan-clubhouse concept, linking architecture, interiors and landscape into an artistic and privileged social experience. The pergolas host two bars at different heights: a high bar for salons, receptions and afternoon tea, and a low bar for casual work and conversation. An art-window display opposite the bars gives collectors space to show objects and host themed salons. A sunken water feature at the junction of the landscape reception and indoor clubhouse makes the spaces converse rather than divide. The landscape covers 4,200 square metres.