“There are luxuriant mulberries on the mountain and beautiful lotus flowers in the pool.”
---<Guofeng, Book of Songs>
 
8,000 years of time have elapsed, accumulating the rich cultural atmosphere of Zhengzhou. And the rapid development of modern technology has brought a new life to this land. The design of the ancient capital, the new city, the land of Zheng tendency, and the place of heaven and earth, is based on this.
 
The project is located in the future land and air transportation hub of Zhengzhou. The plate has great potential. The two horizontal and two vertical road network systems immediately reach the prosperous city; the dense urban atmosphere and the distant humanistic essence collide and merge into a unique modern oriental temperament. The design is based on this as an opportunity, combining ancient and contemporary elements such as academies and technology to find the resonance between tradition and modernization, and creating a new ecological ideal life that matches the top luxury and upstart.
 
The iconic symbol is the first visual point of the entrance, the green plants are twisted into a planet and suspended in the air, and the ribbon-like rattan rope surrounds it up and down. Only by looking down can one see the whole picture of the earth, which is to know the land.
 
The intervention of weightlessness blurs the boundaries of time and space, and the design radiates in a broader artistic conception, expressing the integration of Zheng tendency and the concept of life with imagery, and realizing the complementary blend of nature and life, history and modernity.
 
Design is how to capture the heavy cultural connotation, and put it into modern life to give life more sense of ritual and eternal thinking under the vicissitudes of life.
 
Etiquette order is a necessary element to build a sense of ritual. The library is matched with the curtain wall of the patio. The arc of the original wood color extends a rigorous sense of array, which is opposite to the green landscape on the side, creating a sense of rhythm in the space, courtesy of the distinguished guests with culture and nature, and feels the coziness of slow time in the ease of retracting, Taste the thousand-year-old ancient capital culture hidden in the modern corner.
 
The spiral escalator soars up to the negotiation area on the second floor. The twisted design gives the space more variables, and climbing up the stairs is like crossing the blue water into a secret world. The upstairs is calm and quiet, the downstairs is full of childishness, separated by a wall, two worlds, time passes quickly, and life grows slowly, but there is always a place for your treasure.
 
Ingenious treasures, bamboo pavilions float on the black stone, pay tribute to the wisdom and art of the ancestors; the exquisite reproduction conveys the spirit of ancient sages, reflects the collision of modern technology and "family culture", and stimulates the power of space through dialogue fluctuation giving space cultural heritage through design.
 
The curtain wall in the patio sprinkles the 360-degree scenery,  the multi-dimensional linkage between indoor and outdoor, and the space is silent; the natural tones of beige, green, and brown evaporate warmth and precipitation together with the sun.
 
Children can fly over the mountains, rivers, and galaxies with the wings of imagination, and dreams must be brilliant. They need overwhelming cherished care and space where their minds can "spread the wild."

The project is located at the future land-air transport hub of Henan, which will be the core of future urban southward expansion plan. Architects consult the Rites of the Zhou•Records on the Examination of Craftsmanship in the preliminary planning and design process and integrate local symbols of the Central Plains Culture in an attempt to build a “paradise city with national customs” in Zhengzhou.

The planning logic of “south garden and north yard” is followed for the whole area in this project. Ideas of Chinese ancient garden construction were introduced into the “south garden”, make the most important building the starting point of the entire array. It becomes a city-level public parlor in an open form. Moreover, the building facade is presented in the shape of arc to match the main garden in the front.

Architects desire to show the relationship between the building and Chinese traditional worldview, and finally creates the form of “three arcs, two entrances and one beam of light”. Time and space have formed between the first vaulted arc and the second square arc. The third entrance arc is the central focus of the whole façade array. When the building is reflected in water, the virtual-real arcs make up an eye that seems to target where time and space meet.

The building has two openings: one is the west-facing garden and the other faces the sky. The entrance guides people inwards, yet it sparks thoughts when people look up at the sky. The internal round space is derived from the concept of “courtyard” in Chinese traditional architecture. Unlike external and internal spaces, the courtyard connects the sky and the earth and creates another “realm” for the building space, allowing time and space meet here.

In the center of the atrium lies the artistic installation “time container” designed by us. Standing in the center of the space, it complements with the round courtyard in the shape of pyramid, which works together with reflections to indicate the passage of time like an hourglass.

We hope to maintain unique oriental beauty in form and materials, so “simplicity” and “subtlety” have become the keywords that match glossiness and fusion. Compared with plain beauty, the texture of simplicity is more reserved. When it comes to glossiness, we choose a range of matte-finish materials like frosted earthenware tile, matte composite aluminum-plastic sheet and brushed stainless steel, and make them properly combined according to their glossiness.

The first floor of the building is composed of external square tile wall featuring the straight-curved layout and internal cylinder-shaped tile wall. It is built from 100 thousand earthenware tiles. It is the wall combining large-scale staggered arrangement and gradual hollowed-out design in some areas to achieve the gradient effect of textures. Besides, the acute-angle contraction is done for the joint of the corner and window, which makes the details more forceful.

The arched suspended ceiling structure is the space truss system. It is not only the keel of the main curtain wall for the wooden-grained arched suspended ceiling, but also part of the load-bearing structure of the building’s main structure. Its top part supports large-step space inside the building as well as the dual-pillar system for the third-floor roof overhang. That is also the challenge of the entire architectural structure. 

To attain the best result in overhang size, light weight and thinness, the design adopt two innovative structural systems-cylinder-shaped dual-pillar system and composite roof truss system. As a result, the overhang is up to 12 meters, and the thinnest part is only 15cm. Architects use the dark-slate-blue Al-Mg-Mn standing seam roof, so it can fit well with the sky and earth from the bird’s-eye view.