Text description provided by the architects
Xinggang Hechang Lingyunzhu in Zhengzhou, a 3,000-square-meter non-demolition demonstration zone designed between January and April 2020 and completed in November of the same year, sits in the Economic Development New District, flanked on north and south by urban parks. The internal building layout leaves an almost 15,000-square-meter central park, producing a double-park condition of outside and inside. As a permanent rather than temporary showroom, the zone will become the community's main pedestrian entry, and the team frames it as a park portal. The site divides into a front plaza along the street and a rear courtyard; the front carries urban interface renewal, retail parking, fire-truck circulation and commercial atmosphere, while the rear, enclosed by two high-rises and the sales building, holds a 25-by-46-meter rectangular green and a 10-by-45-meter south-side fire-truck access hardscape. The design must stitch these fragmented, physically incompatible zones, fold the present marketing moment into the future life of the community, and articulate a lifestyle value. Inspired by Yoko Ono's line about walking in the sky, and by Alexander Calder's mobiles, the team cuts clouds from the sky: a wandering, cloud-shaped path links the north ramp, which will become the future homecoming route, to the south steps toward the model units, and four raised green islands step up to a 1.5-meter change in grade, defining three water surfaces that become, from high to low, an 800-millimeter cascade, 100-millimeter stepped sheets and a still pool beside the showroom. Twelve Chinese tallow trees, nine of them planted on the islands under sedum cover, form the canopy over the water. A wind-driven sculpture of the developer's He Xiao Meng mascot, finished in the brand's bright yellow, nods to Calder's mobiles, turning in the forest breeze. A sunken seating platform at the highest island offers another angle on the miniature forest. The result is a sky-island-forest that greets residents on their return home.
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