Sector: Civic

Client: Guizhou Provincial Government

Location: Anshun, Guizhou Province, PRC

Brief

Huangguoshu National Park, Guizhou Province, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site of outstanding natural beauty comprising 18 waterfalls, including the largest in Asia, protected stone villages and a unique environmental habitat carved out of the Karst limestone topography. It is one of China’s major tourist destinations.

The local government wish to create a ‘gateway’ building for the Park which will celebrate and conserve the natural beauty, engage and educate the tourists and research into sustainable methods of agriculture all within the overriding desire to lead the world in carbon neutral eco-tourism.

The biomes are seen as a small family of interventions that sit comfortably within the valley. They coalesce between the dramatic changes of character of landscape and determine a focal point to the valley floor. They are envisaged as three separate experiences housing the most dramatic of contrasting landscapes that complement, not overly impose, on the character and scale of the place.

The structures are intended as a place for a variety of wonderful and memorable experiences that are centred around different themed environments. They will all be underpinned by spaces that will be developed using themes of education, research, leisure and entertainment and sustainability.