Shelter Tianzhushan
Tea house in a Chinese Taoist montain
Direct mandate - completed
Location | Tianzhu montain (Anhui) China • Client | Local gouvernment • Type | New project public infrastructure • Construction Period | 2009 - 2012 • Surface Area | 350 m² • Program | family • Cost | 650 000 € • photos | Frederic Henriquez
Located on a sacred Taoist mountain, this ecotourism infrastructure project benefits from an exceptional setting. In Taoist iconography, architecture is but one element of a complex composition, attesting to the human presence in an ideal context where the natural and the artificial form a coherent harmonious whole. Our project has sought to get closer to this philosophy of effacement. Thus, the building is seen as an extension of the existing topography. It bends and flexibly follows the accidental contours of the rock. A resting place for ramblers, the Tianzhushan refuge follows their pace as they enter through the first floor and continue their walk along a gentle ramp that leads to the water level. Two kinds of relationship with the surrounding nature are offered through the façades which at times frame the landscape and at other times project us into it through vast openings.
Photographs • Frederic Henriques
