Chengdu Luhu Ecological City 沚 Hospital

Zhiyuan (Zhi Courtyard), the first full-scale residential community delivered by WTD Vesper Design in partnership with Chengdu's Luhu Eco-City, opened after nearly five years of construction. The architecture, developed for client Chengdu Wanhua New City, combines an outward-facing commercial street with an inward courtyard composed of a large and a small garden; the facade takes its cue from birch trees, its black-and-white, piano-key geometry lending the project an artistic, geometric character. Because the surrounding high-rises make residents feel enclosed, the landscape's task is to dissolve that oppressive envelope and soften the sharp architectural lines. During design development the team moved away from dramatic, inserted landforms and hard compositions toward a soft, "silent-rain" approach led by plants. Minimal lines drawn from the facade are extended into the landscape: a new white lattice gate connects the commercial eaves on both sides so that the landscape appears to grow out of the building, and cloud-bell installations add privacy without closing the view. The central courtyard is conceived as a pure forest. Paving continues the birch motif through lines and geometric fields of different materials, also breaking up the rigid fire-access route. Hidden stone strips, carved with natural rough textures and set between gravel and flower borders, appear to have grown in place, and small spring rills mimic natural seeps. Trees are planted as pure groves: Chinese tallow, olive and Nuttall oak, each tallow specimen eight to twelve metres tall so that its canopy hides the sharp base of the architecture; in autumn the leaves turn gold and red. A sculptural stream of 108 irregular stone modules, cut multidimensionally from boulders and assembled on site, forms a wading play space for children. The courtyard programme includes a forest living room, neighbourhood garden, interactive water feature, outdoor casual office, sensory garden and rooftop botanical garden. The sunniest core is an open lawn for community events, shaded by white three-dimensional sculptural pergolas whose tops hold roughly 500 star lights arranged by actual Milky Way distributions. The smaller courtyard is a sensory wellness garden using aromatic plants such as rosemary and age-friendly seating. The design treats the 1,500-square-metre elevated podium, 4.5 to 11 metres above ground, together with the near-10,000-square-metre courtyard as one continuous living space, extending the home's reach outward by 500 metres. The entrance-building roof is "cultivated" as a mini farm allocated to residents for organic growing. The outer commercial street is threaded with ecological rain gardens, closing a 24-hour loop of inward courtyard and outward commerce.