The 'Huaxi Mengxibitan' residential project is located in Huaxi, a growing district 17km far from the city center of Guiyang, Guizhou province capital. The project dates back to 2004, when the district was starting its expansion. At that time, especially in Guizhou area, construction and technical skills were very basic, that is why architects had to find simple and alternative ways to control project construction. A 1:1 'model' has been created on site using bamboo frames. This helped to control the scale of the project in relationship with the mountainous environment. Positioning these bamboos also helped to highlight critical points, mainly for the foundations, due to the particularly harsh conditions of the site and composition of the soil. The choice to turn this 'bamboo net' into a concrete one has been, again, mainly due to lack of construction skills, which could not allow the use of steel frames. The shape of the so called 'Dream Stream' takes inspiration from the typical informal architecture of Guizhou wooden villages.
Courtesy of West-line studio

Architects: West-line studio

Location: Huaxi, Guiyang, Guizhou, China

Design Team: Haobo Wei, Minghua Ou, Haoyan Wei, Jingsong Xie

Area: 3900.0 m2

Project Year: 2004

Photographs: Courtesy of West-line studio

Courtesy of West-line studio

The 'H...