Articles by Collin Chen

Karst landform is distributed in places like Guangxi, Guizhou and Chongqing. Guangxi is the place with the most widely distributed karst topography. KARST, refers to the geological process that water acts on soluble rocks mainly with chemical dissolution, supplemented by mechanical actions such as water erosion, subsurface erosion and collapse. Guilin landscape is a typical manifestation of karst terrain. Geographical landscapes like karst caves and sinkholes are formed by erosion. Dashiwei sinkholes in Leye County are the largest sinkhole group in the world, which is acclaimed as the “World’s Sinkhole Museum”. The Yunhaitianzhou project is designed to experience such large-scale geographical wonders. The typical cases of viewing the large-scale geographical landscape of the canyon are as follows: The viewing platform of the Grand Canyon in Colorado, Arizona, the United States, and the suspended doughnut shape combines the soaring feeling of buildings with the tourism dynamic lines. Also, the buildings of the Shanxi Hanging Temple are integrated with the cliff wall, which is the representation of the Chinese landscape painting. The link between the cliff wall of Dashiwei sinkholes and the top of the mountain is covered with plants. So, tourists have to approach or exceed the cliff wall to experience the soaring feeling of the sinkholes. If the doughnut shape is adopted, huge support is needed at the rear to balance the front weight.

At the end of the 19th century, Zhang Yuan, the most famous garden of Shanghai, developed into one of the earliest public and commercial spaces in modern China, exemplifying and leading the emergence of a new Chinese urban lifestyle. In 2022, as Zhang Yuan reopens to the public after a complete rehabilitation of its historic buildings, Neri&Hu was commissioned by Blue Bottle to create a retail space in one of the old Shikumen typology residences. Coffee initiates a dialogue between Shanghai’s rich history and the contemporary urban social realm.

At the end of the 19th century, Zhang Yuan, the most famous garden of Shanghai, developed into one of the earliest public and commercial spaces in modern China, exemplifying and leading the emergence of a new Chinese urban lifestyle. In 2022, as Zhang Yuan reopens to the public after a complete rehabilitation of its historic buildings, Neri&Hu was commissioned by Blue Bottle to create a retail space in one of the old Shikumen typology residences. Coffee initiates a dialogue between Shanghai’s rich history and the contemporary urban social realm.

Project Overview. In Lintong, Xi’an, Mount Li stretches hundreds of miles from east to west, immersed in a dark blue aroma, presenting a panoramic view from afar. On the vast plain slowly descending from the foot of the mountain towards its northern slope, stands a gigantic pyramid-shaped mound, solitarily yet proudly. This is the mausoleum belonging to the founder of the centralized imperial system in China that lasted more than 2,000 years – the First Emperor of Qin, Ying Zheng. The ambiance of the mausoleum survived the rapid urban development in modern China, and providentially keeps the landscape structure of mountains and plains as it was before the common era, projecting the ever-lasting charisma of the first emperor who conquered all the states and united China with unbounded confidence. The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is one of the first Chinese heritage sites to be inscribed on the World Heritage List (1987). In the new century, the municipal government of Xi’an plans to build a museum dedicated to the conservation, exhibition, and interpretation of two pieces of a national treasure, the “Painted Bronze Chariots, and Horses”, and in the meantime, diverting as many tourists as possible from the world-famous Terracotta Warriors and Horses scenic spot. The two painted bronze chariots and horses were unearthed from the western edge of the mound, about 8 meters deep underground. Compared to the universally renowned grandness of the terracotta army, the bronze chariots are only half the real-life size. But to one’s amazement, the bronze artifacts with hyper-realistic style are assembled from thousands of delicate metal components. Its exquisite and ingenious craftsmanship represents the highest level of human manufacturing techniques from more than two thousand years ago. Between the inner and outer city walls of the mausoleum, a meters-deep huge historically formed (circa Ming Dynasty) gully (Yue Gou) offers the only feasible site for the museum – the gully precludes any possibility of burying cultural relics beneath, which forms an important reason for the National Cultural Heritage Administration to finalize the site selection after much deliberation. It is an extraordinary serendipity that the “Painted Bronze Chariots and Horses” gets to return to the foot of the mausoleum mound and once again accompany the world’s most mysterious emperor forty years after its excavation.

Lifting the Four Corners of the Rooftop. Imagine a two-story house, with its four rooftop corners lifted up. More light is let in; the height of interior space becomes indefinite – some rooms are two stories high, some one and a half, and some close to the top ceiling are only half story high, and these spaces naturally transform into a living room, an art studio, a loggia, or an attic… The roof, defined by four curves, transforms into a patio featuring a double-curved structure, just like a courtyard opening up towards the sky. People can get together here on a clear summer night to enjoy the bright moon and the cool; on a wet day, this is also where rain gathers and gets drained out of the house from four waterspouts.