Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Architectural Creation & Research Studio and Tus-Design Group have created a new warehouse for the Water Conservancy Bureau in order to store materials for flood control. Their main task was to create a sustainable building that would be fully integrated and will not affect the natural surrounding.
The Natural Wisdom project was short-listed for a 2021 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The site dimension is 5475 sqm, the plot ratio is 0.25, the total building area is 1379.02 sqm, the warehouse area is 839 sqm, the administrative area is 540 sqm, and the parking has space for four cars, while the landscape area is 4746 sqm.
The main job of the architects was to get the boundaries between nature, architecture, and time, to avoid the changing of the original lakeside landscape and ecology by building the warehouse.
The solution is ‘Natural wisdom,’ which made the warehouse ‘growing’ with the lakeside environment over time.
What the architects want to deliver is something appropriate and sustainable. It is more meaningful to discuss from the overall environment than from a single building.
‘Inherent state’
The phrase ‘Inherent state’ is quoted from the Buddhist Sutra ‘Inherent state,’ which mainly describes the Buddha Sakyamuni’s original appearance and state of practice before he became a Buddha.
The architects quote this word here to describe the original and natural state of things without too much interference.
When the warehouse becomes an integral part of the landscape, the architects believe that either the frequency of use of facilities is low enough not to affect the style of the landscape, or the appearance matches the scene of the landscape and is integrated with the landscape; otherwise, it destroyed the ‘Inherent state’ of the lakeside landscape.
This ‘Inherent state’ is the goal the team wants to keep by ‘Natural wisdom.’
Location
Maximum concealment.
The site is driven in by a small branch of the roadway along the shore, separated from the main leisure landscape green land along the lakeside by a small river.
Such location ensures the maximum degree of preservation of the lakeshore landscape, the minimum degree of change.
Whether from the lakeshore or from the middle of the lake, this location is the most concealed sight of the landscape.
Construction
Buried, above the flood level line.
The architects sink the warehouse below the ground but ensure that the indoor leveling is above the flood alert level in Dongtaihu Lake.
The warehouse is covered with soil, and the management room achieves the necessary lighting and ventilation through several small skylights and a sunken inner courtyard window.
The sunken courtyard is connected to the external ground through a bridge that climbs slowly outwards.
The structure of the warehouse is like a ‘small tent.’
Project: Natural Wisdom
Architects: Shaofeng Li Architectural Creation & Research Studio
Associate Architects: Tus-Design Group Co., Ltd
Client: Water Conservancy Bureau of Wuzhong District, Suzhou
Contractor: Suzhou Wuzhong Dongtaihu Construction and Development Co., Ltd.
Photographers: Yong Zhang, Fang Chen, and Tianzhou Yang
