Far from the City

By Li Xiangning - 31 August 2017

In recent years popular sentiment has increasingly turned against the pressures of urban life with its attendant environmental issues. Many look to return to the fresh air and tranquility of the countryside, far from the city. Today, urban expansion into outlying areas along with better transportation systems have now made “country living” a popular lifestyle in China. This has led to new demands on architects for suitable housing in these burgeoning areas. Some have even moved their practices to the countryside to meet the new requirements, creating a new approach to architecture. Architect Xu Tiantian, principal at DnA, is one of this new clutch of practitioners. Located in the tea fields of Damushan in Songyang, Zhejiang Province, the Tea House makes full use of its site. An extremely simple unassertive volume, an unobtrusive feature amid the tea fields, it blends with the surrounding sycamore trees, lake and path down to the water. This amalgam continues on the inside where the architect has harmonized the building’s functions, creating views onto the outside in a variety of ways: orientation, layout, round openings, glass curtain walls and especially through a long skylight. Natural daylight penetrates the building from many points, creating a medley of architectural spaces. Of note is the fact that local materials common to the Jiangnan region, like wood, bamboo or the column and beam system, have not been use. Instead, seamless concrete walls form a quiet enclosure infiltrated by light and with points of view onto the landscape beyond. The overall sensation is of a warm concrete mass. The Bamboo Pavilion, a series of light bamboo pavilions, stand quietly in the endless stretches of the Damushan tea fields in Songyang, Zhejiang. Unlike the traditional pillar and beam systems, the skeletal frames have been left uncovered, revealing their geometry from a distance. Their “eloquent silence” makes them an integral part of the...