Chongqing is a poetic land with half of the city, half of the mountain and trees cover thousands of miles. The project is located in Nanshan, Chongqing. Nanshan, located on the south bank of the Yangtze River in Chongqing, has a wealth of tourism resources including natural scenery, cultural landscape, and specialties. In recent years, Nanshan has successively appeared some commercial buildings with cultural connotations such as bookstores and homestays. These buildings are simple in design and distinctive in shape, which has made Nanshan gradually become a synonym for elegant and introverted. And its artistic conception corresponds to Tao's poetry.

In people's haunt I built my cot;
Of wheel's and hoof's noise, I hear not.

How can it leave on me no trace?
Secluded heart makes a secluded place.
I pick fence-side asters at will;
Carefree I see the southern hill.
The mountain air's fresh day and night;
Together birds go home in flight.
What revelation at this view?
Words fail me if I try to tell you.
——Yuanming Tao

Therefore, we refine the traditional architectural culture and natural landscape of Nanshan as the main tempo, and use modern technical language and artistic creation techniques to transform it into our architectural language, so that visitors can experience the artistic conception of “ hidden in the nature”.

The entire project has two parts, the sales office and the commercial part. The sales office has a small scale but exquisite and delicate. It is naturally engraved and hidden in nature, thus highlighting the concept of “seclusion”. The facade uses the perforated plate as the louver to protect the sunshine, and the shape of louver is inspired by the cloud of Nanshan. The perforated leaves float around the curtain wall. It resembles a long scroll landscape painting, and its changes show the shape of the clouds and fog that stretches in the Nanshan. The glass curtain walls with gradual mist and perforated louvers are integrated so that the whole building seems floating in the clouds. At the same time, there are spraying device will create fog around the building every day. It makes the natural fog become another layer facade for the building, creating a wonderland of Nanshan. The building is not only an architecture but a cultural event.

Technical sheet

Project Name: Shanxiao Sales Pavilion, Chongqing

Architecture Firm: aoe

Leader designer & Team: Larry Wen, Liu Chen, Li Pengyong, Niu Zhuojun, Yang Kaiqi

Completion Year: 2019

Gross Built Area: 1026㎡

Photo credits: Huang Ligang

Clients: Lianfa & Sunac

About aoe

aoe is an architecture and interior design studio based in Beijing, China. Its award-winning work spans residential, commercial, hospitality, educational, civic, corporate, mixed-use and urban planning markets. Underpinned by a creative intelligence-led philosophy, aoe intervenes in the social environment to create vibrant human-city spaces of the future. Responsive to modern facets of human life, aoe’s design solutions fuse science and technology with the arts and culture, resulting in an inspired and much-needed reinvention of urban living – all the while, respecting local cultures, nature, and different ways of life.