Silver Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2024
Xiangkai Shangcheng Yu Garden Community Clubhouse
by Zhijun Zhong
- A' Design Award 2024 Silver Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: Herabenna
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 17,375
- Verification code 7998726CB8 · Verify this award
About Xiangkai Shangcheng Yu Garden Community Clubhouse
Xiangkai Shangcheng Yu Garden is a community clubhouse located in Kuiwen District, Weifang, China. The interior covers 2000 square metres and was completed in May 2023. Simple circular forms and curved surfaces shape the space. Elements drawn from forests, grasses, seeds and fireflies form a miniature ecosystem. A glowing forest, a plant wall and a biological corridor show the variety of living species. The lower floor holds a fitness centre with a yoga room, a machine training area and a swimming pool. The design links health, nature and daily community life.
Zhijun Zhong's Xiangkai Shangcheng Yu Garden Community Clubhouse emerges from a rich dialogue between Eastern architectural heritage and contemporary design sensibility, synthesizing the spatial poetry of traditional garden pavilions with the material vocabulary of international modernism. The work demonstrates exceptional command of architectural scale and proportion, utilizing the groin vault configuration—a structural typology with roots extending through Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic traditions—reinterpreted here through a lens of refined minimalism that strips away ornamental elaboration while retaining the fundamental spiritual aspiration inherent in upward-reaching forms. The gold-finished vault surfaces suggest both the precious material traditions of sacred architecture and the warm hospitality of welcoming domestic spaces, their burnished patina evoking aged bronze temple elements while maintaining contemporary sophistication. The verde antico marble reception desk introduces a powerful material counterpoint, its dramatic natural veining providing organic complexity against the geometric precision of the surrounding architecture, while simultaneously grounding the ethereal verticality with earthbound mass and solidity. The sculptural pendant of interlocking rings descending from the vault apex creates a meditative focal point, its graduated circular forms suggesting celestial mechanics, orbital harmony, and the infinite continuity symbolized by the ring throughout global cultures. The perspectival recession through successive arches establishes a processional quality recalling classical temple approaches while the faceted mirror terminus creates an infinite visual extension that dissolves the boundary between interior and exterior, architecture and landscape. This interplay between containment and expansion, between the protective enclosure of the vaulted ceiling and the transparent connection to nature through generous glazing, speaks to fundamental human needs for shelter balanced with connection to the natural world. Viewers might contemplate how this space negotiates between the monumental and the intimate, the sacred and the secular, the historical and the contemporary.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Xiangkai Uptown Yu Garden is located in the center of Kuiwen District, where you can enjoy the beautiful river, botanical gardens, parks and squares, and the city ecology is excellent.The design of this project continues the direction of urban planning, aiming at creating a new iteration of version 6.0 of "Shangcheng Gang", creating a good community micro-ecosystem, building aspirations for a better life, and integrating health into daily life.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 2000 square meters
- Tags
- Post-Pandemic era, Ecology, Sports, Healthy Life, Natural Symbiosis, Seeds, Modern Aesthetics
- Production Technology
- It is a metaphor for the shape of the universe to use the contemporary design language to construct the order of space, while using simple circular and surface structures to sculpt space. At the same time, we incorporated elements such as forest, grasses, seeds, fireflies and so on, forming a miniature ecosystem. Its constant exchange of energy expresses to us the idea of symbiosis between architecture and ecology.
- Design Challenge
- The design draws inspirational elements from architecture, nature, humanities and regional impressions. With the design language of great architectural sense and artistry, the micro-ecological system with rich connotation and spiritual freedom is constructed for Weifang people by deduction from the dimensions of light, material, shape color and so on.Let nature surround the city, and the city grows in nature.
The vestibule used for reception follows the concept of light, integrates imagery and symbols into space, and becomes the driving force that generates the ecosystem.Through architecture, art, quality, interaction and nature, the negotiation area creates build a young and vibrant forest city center, which will make visitors feel like they are in nature, eliminating anxiety and relaxing their bodies.The lower ground floor has created a contemporary fitness centre by creating a hot and dynamic ambience, including a yoga room, a mechanical fitness area, a swimming pool and more,which presents the epitome of the ideal future life in Weifang. - Project Duration
- The project is located at Zhuanjian Road, Kuiwen District, Weifang City, Shandong Province, China ,and was completed in May 2023.
- Operation Flow
- In exploring the relationship between architecture and nature, the design team considered how to expand the fuller interaction and integration among the city, environment, people and space. It aims at constructing a micro-ecosystem through spatial relations, and depicting the art and connotations of space from the laws and progressive relations of all things. The design of the "glowing forest" , the "plant wall" and the "biological corridor" show the diversity of species. The state of close connection between species symbolizes the harmonious coexistence of nature.
- Research
- Born in the post-pandemic era, people have begun to focus on health topics, with increasing emphasis on nature, freedom and exercise. People are eager not only for intimate contact with nature and green environment, but also to a community life that integrates social and entertainment activities. Therefore, ecological health has been designed into the space in an aesthetic way. In a space where architecture and nature are highly integrated, people are nourished by energy and return to the most comfortable state of life, satisfying both physical and psychological needs.
- Inspiration
- After the pandemic, people are prioritizing health, shifting from merely sustaining life to embracing a healthy lifestyle. A project aims to build a vibrant community focused on health, sports, ecology, and safety, emphasizing ecological harmony. Inspired by natural growth principles, the design promotes urban ecological development and offers a serene environment for city dwellers.