After determining the function, we focused on three things when choosing the venue: first, mountains, buildings, and farmland landscape, all of which are horizontally spread out along the east-west direction of the Qu River, and we hoped that the venue would have the same qualities; second, the venue should be close to the farmland, which is naturally in line with the theme of food; and third, the venue should have existing buildings that could be transformed; Third, there shall be existing structures on site that may be renovated. Fortunately, we discovered a field walk parallel to the Qu River, with a derelict farm warehouse along the road. On the west side, the warehouse’s wall confronts the main arrival path, while on the south side, the Qu River waterfront is separated by woodland and a new town road. To the north lies a considerable expanse of farmland, over which the field road winds, with rolling hills visible on both sides.

The Warehouse – The reconfigured warehouse primarily serves indoor dining and meal preparation. However, it is also suitable for exhibitions, gatherings, resting, and seminars, with people coming and going in various settings. The building is a typical example of a field, embodying the memories of previously intensive farming labor. Therefore, we did not make many alterations to the overall shape, except adding a new main entrance; the other original holes and old doors and windows were also kept. The new metal roof, which eliminates the leaks in the original roof, is cantilevered outwards on the west side of the building, creating a grey space beneath the eaves that emphasizes the main entry.

The small house’s original roof was no longer functional, and the existing walls were too weak to sustain the new roofing system. To protect the walls from future damage, we installed a new steel and timber structural system on the outside of the ancient house’s facade, with columns gently removed from the existing walls to support the beams and roof independently. We kept the original roof beams to create a memory of the ancient walls without breaking their existing tie stability. The old external structural system visually connects with the long table regarding proportionality.

Because of the new apertures on the west side of the wall and the higher wall’s poor stability, new glued timber ring beams were added to hoop the upper half of the wall, increasing the overall strength of the old building. A natural rock about 2m5 in diameter was discovered near the riverbank in Tingtangxu Village and transported to the spot, where it was attached and stabilized with a slender tie rod to the overhanging beam.

18 – The warehouse is already there, and the long table adds the finishing touch. This 18-meter-long flat surface serves as a conduit for connecting with the local population along the 4-meter-wide field road. Continuing the restaurant’s purpose, the long table extends across the landscape, creating a more natural and public setting. The 18m length takes the scale experience to the extreme, hosting more anticipated gatherings and sharing on an anti-everyday scale. The slightly lower height also allows the long table to directly perceive the body, resulting in a large wooden surface for sitting and lying. Amid the vast site’s grass and trees, we hope this table will take on a new pose, possibly floating, gently caressing the earth it sits on, as if distinct from reality, moving between the mundane and the imaginative.

The consistent span of the construction of the long table space on the overall sense of aggregation has a more substantial impact on the suspension of the way to lessen this separation while also ensuring the continuity of the roof. The lightweight tie bar, if present, indirectly limits space while also occasionally assisting toddlers in climbing up and down. The enclosure and implicit divides above the long table shape how people use the table daily.

From 18 to 42 – To further formally, structurally, and experientially broaden the table’s borders, we stretched the 18-meter-long table to become a 42-meter-long public system. People can meet, picnic, sit, nap, swing, and admire the beauty here, and the field path transitions from a passing space to a place to remain, with more possibilities emerging as time goes on.

The wooden system on both sides of the long table complements the stability of the large-span steel structure in the center and meets the resting needs of villagers and visitors. The swing cloth hanging under the roof is an unexpected favorite, and the 42m public interface, like the shadow cast by the farmhouse in the field under the slanting sun, describes each other in detail. We connect and respond to the two structures at the main entrance to form an integrated expression. The farmhouse serves as an introduction that opens up the situation, which was here before we came. It eventually returns to its origins on the ground and carries the root of all logic.

Mountain & River – Environmental factors determine the overall roof form. As we consider the implicit geometric correspondence and the mimetic relationship between natural geography and artificial things, the long table along the road mirrors the unfolding of the water and mountains, attempting to connect and visualize the delights of the scenery here.

The roof of the promenade is sloped in a one-way profile: to the north, the mountains and fields are elevated to provide a view of the landscape; to the south, the gable end is depressed to block out visual clutter in the direction of the driveway; and to the west, it meets the direction of pedestrian arrival while creating a sense of serenity and peace within the site. The sloping roof follows the formal relationship of the sloping roof of the warehouse while at the same time slightly lowering its stance, implicitly acknowledging the subordination of its ‘furniture’ objects to the main ‘building.’ It is only then that we realize that the final appropriate scale of the project comes from the measurements drawn in the silence of the farmhouse so that we will be manageable and quiet.

While the warehouse’s roofing material was chosen for practical reasons, using a soft tarpaulin on the main body of the long table and the public gallery makes the roofing less solid. The roofing changes in response to the weather and time of day, morphing into a conversation with nature rather than a static landscape that stands alone. The roofing materials are less permanent, but this is quite rustic, retaining the impermanent and unpredictability of the original. The material will gradually age and even disintegrate with the dawn, sunset, and seasons, and the countryside’s texture reflects this natural turnover and non-permanence. The structural body of the steel and wood skeleton will last slightly longer, adding a layer of temporal dimension.

With People – In our view, the relationship between the Long Table and the local area should be more abstract than it requires deliberate interpretation, and it should be more concrete that it limits many possibilities. Especially as outsiders, our understanding of the local context is not profound. Creating a fixed-function, ostentatious intervention with an overly confident approach often results in presumptuous actions that are, in fact, irrelevant and offensive. We intend to leave a localized collective imaginary space, and it is ultimately up to the people to decide how it is filled and written. We have progressively shifted our focus from the extraordinary to the everyday. During the residency and later operation, some villagers expressed their excessive preference for the long table, even with a hint of defense; we were also pleased to see the residents come to the venue to use the extended table following their understanding and exciting interactions occurred one after the other. The relationship between the locals and the locals grew stronger.

With Time – Tingtangxu Village in the Long Table has a fertile field of thousands of miles. Although the water of the Qu River flows year-round, rice, rapeseed flowers, and other food crops are still cultivated in the spring and autumn cycles. Longyou’s rich grain and rice products are also rooted in the profound farming tradition here, which is still indispensable in daily abundance in our lives today. After the project was launched, we came and went to the site many times, during which the golden rapeseed flowers turned into green rice paddies. After the harvest, it was another scene. Other vegetation changed with the seasons and was very rich, and the long table interestingly reflected each other, making it a useful companion.

In the process of thinking about culture, geography, and daily life, we gradually began to reflect on how design can respond to the joint imagination of abstract and figurative, everyday and extraordinary, and then look forward to a discursive intervention to touch upon the topic of rural construction in the current context and to pull the trigger of more different groups of people and their co-operation. Time has become increasingly important in this process. The labor at dawn and the lights at sunset make the construction closer to materiality, rubbing marks of time.
Text provided by the architects.

The polygonal-shaped site is located on a small, highly exposed promontory, a condition that defines both the character of the place and the starting point for the project.

With the aim of achieving the smallest possible built volume, two distinct areas were created: the swimming pool and its surrounding deck at the natural ground level, and the changing facilities on a lower level, covered by the pool deck itself.

The pool is positioned in the central area of the site, at the northern corner of the enclosure, halfway down the existing slope. This location minimizes earthworks—particularly important due to the site’s proximity to the Petouzal Hillfort archaeological area—and allows for maximum integration into the immediate surroundings.

The project seeks a solid, simple, and robust construction, with minimal—or virtually no—maintenance requirements, capable of fulfilling its function sustainably, without discrimination in use, and fully accessible between the two designed levels directly from the surrounding outdoor spaces.

The structure is entirely built in reinforced concrete, using exposed waterproof concrete block walls for both enclosures and internal partitions. These materials offer excellent resistance to the passage of time, intensive use, and adverse environmental conditions, eliminating the need for additional finishes on exterior walls, interior surfaces, and ceilings. The building is covered but not completely enclosed, with no thermal envelope, since its use is exclusively seasonal during the summer months. Consequently, it requires neither heating nor cooling, and ventilation is entirely natural.

Particular attention is paid to user privacy, the overall scale of the complex, and the spirit and traditions of Galician vernacular construction. This is reflected in the masonry work using prefabricated modular elements for interior and exterior paving, inner and outer wall layers, and protective architectural components.

Text provided by the architects.

A politically committed and militant project!

Today, the unsealed plot and green roof of the pavillon host an incredible diversity of plant, animal and funghi species. A unfiltered, 12 metre long pond, that is over 2 meters deep, connects the wild northern and southern parts of the garden. The roof is covered by another garden, which is slightly less wild, and more focused on food production. In winter, the house itself orients around a large fireplace, which‘s chimneys comically long shape responds to the legal exhaust distances in the dense urban environment. In summer, it opens to the pond and gardens.

The creation of a complex habitat, that enables a species rich environment to thrive, is the main purpose of the design.

Text provided by the architects.

Stones with Hooks — When the crowds fade away, we can still find traces of the summer in the riverbed. The riverbed has both shallow and deep sections; along the side adjacent to the road, the riverbed has been artificially raised and enclosed with pebbles to form “waterfront private spaces”. When we went down to the riverbank, we noticed that many of the pebbles around these boxes had iron hooks attached. It was easy to deduce that the hooks were installed by the villagers – so that the canopies could be firmly tied to the pebbles during the peak season.

The villagers did not make any rigid, permanent modifications to the river channel cross-section. Instead, they used the local, non-engineering method of moving pebbles to divide the riverbed into functional zones: a safe, shallow recreational area and a deeper, farther flood discharge area. The waterfront spaces, built flexibly with local materials, can be easily restored even after a flash flood – all it takes is piling up the stones again to revive the consumer scene. Movable, sustainable, and low-impact – this is truly a wonderful example of “traceless stream economy” and collective local construction.

Sunshade, Stream Play and River Crossing — There was no need for excessive “groundless” planning; the site itself is alive, and it had already outlined the task at hand: Xialang is beautiful, and it would be even more beautiful with the addition of a canopy for shade, a few steps for easy access to the water, and a line of stepping stones for crossing the river. The operator of the future café on the site had no high requirements for the building area – the space could be accommodated within the footprint of the existing public toilet. This left the remaining outdoor area as the focus of our concept.

First, let’s look at the canopy. Pebbles serve as the structural foundation for the canopies rented out by the villagers. For the “The Grand Canopy”, we decided to use the main structure of the toilet: four partition walls were built to enclose 8 structural columns, forming the higher foundation on one side of the canopy. On the side of the existing dam, four corresponding low piers were built to form the foundation on the other side. Cables were strung between these two foundations – one high, one low, one north, one south – to complete the structural construction of the canopy.

In the sweltering summer, the canopy is unfolded to welcome tourists; during typhoons or rainy days, it is retracted to ensure safety; in the off-seasons of autumn and winter, it is taken down to facilitate maintenance – and there is no need to apply for additional construction quotas. This flexible construction and operation logic takes from the site and gives back to the site. Next, let’s look at the ground landscape. After meeting the requirements of the river’s blue line setback and water conservancy elevation, we designed the ground projection area of the canopy as the starting point for accessing the stepping stones – an enlarged riverbank platform that acts like a “bridgehead”, accommodating crowds gathering and water-based activities.

Text provided by the architects.

The central element of the park, which characterizes it from a functional point of view, is the open-air amphitheatre which, as in the historic “green theatres” of Italian gardens, is characterized by a scenographic vegetable backdrop: an orchard of cherry trees punctuated by regular planting.

The central entrance to the park is characterized by a tree-lined square, equipped with seats shaded by vegetation arranged in regular rows; from the square you can admire and cross an area characterized by the sowing of a flowery lawn in yellow and pink tones, which becomes a temporary natural installation to visualize the future intervention.

The entire park is illuminated along the circular ring and along the two main internal travel axes with a system of high poles, to ensure usability even in the evening or in conjunction with specific events.

The entrances are located along Via della Costituzione, and include a central pedestrian entrance and two driveways at the ring route, functional to maintenance vehicles.

The paths inside the park ideally continue the agricultural plot of the context and are distinguished, on the basis of their size, between main and secondary ones. Rows of native species shade the paths, completing the design.

The furnishing elements have been selected for the durability of the materials, the low maintenance and a recognizable design: seats and tables in prefabricated concrete, suitably treated with stain-resistant, oil- resistant and anti-degradation resins; all furnishings guarantee durability, resistance to vandalism and low maintenance requirements.

Text provided by the architects.

A shift in model.
The family that owns the land is currently focused on transitioning from an extractive model toward one of ecological conservation. Their vision involves adventure tourism, taking advantage of the towering volcanic rock walls for climbing. They’ve introduced camping areas, and now, lodgings.

Lodgings that carry the memory of a quarry.
All obsolete items left behind by the quarry have been repurposed and revalued, forming a dialogue between time and memory that defines this unique context. The character of the lodgings is inseparable from that of the quarry itself.

In this process of spatial remediation, materials come from three sources:
(1) The natural context – The massive stones placed on site are remnants and absences of what was once extracted over the years; they now serve as structural supports. Along the 50-meter-high, 400-meter-wide cliff wall, flat stones have been deposited — these were used for the sinks. Gravel and sand were reused in walkways and outdoor spaces.

(2) Recycled materials – Vibrating screens and old oil pipeline tubes now serve as structural elements. Metal parts, carved stones, rods, and timbers (such as staves and beams) were salvaged from old constructions in Baños. A thick roll of steel cable, a scoop, small digger teeth, and other machinery spare parts were also reused. These recycled elements embrace the new visitors, creating spaces with the spirit and soul of the quarry while harmonizing with the native vegetation.

(3) The volcano – New pine and colorado wood provide the spatial quality and comfort needed for the interior of the lodgings and the shared dining area. The structures are built using two large trusses prefabricated on the ground — simple to make and easy to lift. The overall experience is that of an observatory, one that looks directly out at the Tungurahua Volcano, enhancing its majesty and grounding the visitor deeply in the spirit of the place.

Text provided by the architects.

Wood as main material

The Naples Underground Central Station had been built on an urban grid designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange as part of an upgrade of the city’s infrastructure.

Kenzo Tange designed the Centro Direzionale and built a city very much in his own style, with reflective skyscrapers, a 1970s piazza, which did not work because it is so different from the rest of Naples.

One of the decisions of the project was to build the station with wood to create an organic contrast with the 1970s neighbourhood. The design of the new station was inspired by older areas of Naples.

Today, it is a place where there are many offices and commercial spaces, but at five o’clock in the afternoon, it is deserted making it an unsafe place. So, the idea of making a new station there and connecting it to the new metro line was also to try to introduce a piece of nature and a piece of the original part of Naples into this artificial part of the city. The new station is being built over the existing metro lines, replacing an earlier building that was little more than a cover for the stairs leading down to the metro platforms.

Wood is a very light material that blends perfectly with the pre-existing structures: we used the concrete structures and columns and inserted new wooden columns into them. The steel part of the concrete matches to make the base of the new columns, and then the rest of the column is entirely made of wood.

The characteristic shape of the 10,000 sqm station is made of glued laminated timber. The width of the train tracks below is reflected in the width of the undulating vaults.

Vaults are a regular feature of the studio. It is an architectural device that works with most materials because historically, vaults were made first with stone and then with ceramic, and today it is effective with wood, especially glulam because it can be moulded into any shape you want beam to be. The vaulted ceilings are also a nod to classic train stations that are often vaulted, while the shape of the station was intended to create the feeling of a “walk in the woods”.

In a way, what we tried to achieve is a kind of new organic, flowing piazza, as if we were walking through a forest when we are actually in such an artificial business centre.
The Centro Direzionale is one of the new metro stations within the new infrastructure projects in Naples designed by well-known architects and designers, such as Zaha Hadid or Karim Rashid, which are being designed for the city under the AAA (architecture, art and archaeology) motto.
However, the overall project has been delayed several times due to archaeological finds on the ground, including the design by Studio Fuksas which will now also serve as a museum after the discovery of an ancient Roman temple on the site.

The Centro Direzionale station did not have the same problem, as it is located in a newer part of the city, but construction was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The station will feature a piece of art on its ceiling depicting a face from an archaeological piece found in Pompeii, in a nod to both the art and architecture of the project’s motto.

Text provided by the architects.

The central part of the Jingyang Camphor Court consists of a wooden cloister encircling the lush camphor trees, which establishes a unique atmosphere at the core of the complex. All new hotel programs such as verandas, guest rooms, conference spaces, and restaurants are arranged around and connected to this central cloister. site limitations, no other large public spaces other than the cloister could be created. The distances between the walls of the different volumes are very narrow, akin to the narrow width between the exterior walls of local vernacular buildings. By putting all buildings in close proximity to each other, an intimate, personal, and nostalgic atmosphere is created, with guests able to discover the different material tonalities arranged along a path, like wandering through a maze.

The hotel’s western area features a new courtyard-type building with the three buildings’ gable walls advancing and retreating to form small public plazas in front of them. From the exterior, these buildings’ subtle setback from the existing straight street draws the guests and public in. The entrance is located on the east of the site and has a deliberately low and unassuming profile, in accordance with the presence of trees and folded canopies. The subtle and human-oriented scale creates an intimate and welcoming atmosphere upon arrival. The hotel rooms are located in the old dormitory space, north of the central courtyard. Its walls were kept, while a new structure penetrates and juts out of the existing volume. Each hotel room has a balcony that faces the interior courtyard and the promenade spaces between the buildings.

The new restaurant is located in the former factory structure in the southern part of the site. The original side walls of this industrial relic were kept and thermal and sound insulation were added. Besides overall structural reinforcements, a new metal roof structure was added to increase the buildings’ safety. The ceiling height was also increased, and new skylights were introduced, creating a more pleasant and contemporary spatial atmosphere for guests while also paying homage to the site’s industrial past.

The bricks of the original structures had a red and orange hue. We wanted to honor this palette when opting for the tonality of the new buildings. Throughout the hotel, we used warm-colored concrete and a thin layer of tiles with a similar gradient. The external walls of the old and new volumes are a mix of kiln and old clay bricks and between the old and the new bricks, a warm-colored concrete is cast in place to create a harmonious transition between the preserved elements and those newly added. Their materiality, color, and texture are closely related to the history of porcelain production in Jingdezhen.

The Jingyang Camphor Court creates a new type of hotel experience with a publicly accessible courtyard that is as large as possible. Next to creating a tranquil and natural environment, the strategy of preservation, renovation, and revitalization of an existing warehouse was central for the arrangement and massing of new programs and creating a new and inviting atmosphere and future for this hotel.

Text provided by the architects.