Text description provided by the architects
China's countryside can be seen as an uncut jade—its beauty is yet to take form, and its value is beyond measure. Led by architect Zou Yingxi, Jialan Architecture consistently pours enthusiasm into the fertile soil of the countryside, carefully polishing the metaphorical stone until it becomes jade. Zou Yingxi positions Jialan as a midwife, not directly providing definitive answers for rural development or urban-rural integration, but instead leaving growth-oriented blank space that awakens builders' and users' expectations for the future, their feelings for history, and their responsibility for ecology. In 2020, for the OCT Qingdao Jimo Lotus Mountain Rural Revitalization Demonstration Zone project exhibition center, Jialan first translated the spiritually resonant medium of the uncut jade into concrete space. Planning, architecture, and operations jointly construct living scenes. In Jialan's DNA, the vision of urban-rural integration is never achieved through a single space alone. They always consider the whole of planning, architecture, and operations, deeply excavating existing social relationships, spatial logic, industrial layout, cultural history, and natural ecology within the field. Based on the overall direction of cultural tourism development and driven by an international art festival, the project introduces new spaces, creates new scenes, and builds new industries for the Qingdao Jimo Longquan-Lotus Mountain urban-rural integration demonstration zone.
TEAM
Lead Architect: Zou Yingxi; Design Team: Chen Shifang, Lei Zhonghua; Interior Design: Xia Fuqiang, Qian Guoxing, Cao Zhenzhen, Liu Tingting, Li Qianxi, Feng Yan, Guo Mengjia, Li Hui; Client: Qingdao OCT Investment Co., Ltd.; Photographer: ArchiTranslator