Sunken Garden
TYPE Exhibition Garden
STATUS Built
LOCATION Beijing, China
YEAR 2013
CLIENT Beijing Department of Construction Management of Horticultural Exposition
DESIGN TEAM Eva Castro, Ulla Hell, Holger Kehne, Chuan Wang, 甘力, 廖晓飓,, 蔡恬岚 ,李翔
COLLABORATORS GroundLab 李卓, Alfredo Ramirez, Eduardo Rico, Marta Postigo and Aleksandra Cicha
The concept of the Sunken Ground draws inspiration from the rich traditions of Suzhou gardens, incorporating elements such as rocks, outcrops, and grottos, while also evoking the imagery of hanging gardens and sunken courtyards. This fusion creates a dynamic space that blends intense ground distortions with a heightened sense of three-dimensionality, enveloping visitors in a landscape defined by concrete, steel, and vegetation. Within this microcosm, visitors can explore a series of pocket landscapes designed for reflection, relaxation, and playful engagement.
The first idea is that of the canyon, as a compressed landscape into the space of a corridor. Natural canyons both have the intense spatial quality of the enclosed space, but also inherit the layered characteristics of the geological formation, showing strata, cracks and faults of the matrix rock. We wanted to use this feeling of thickness and formational to explore how architectural elements can fabricate a passage where material, shade and enclosure would dictate the main spatial experience. The pots serve as meandering elements within the larger landscape, a large scale version of traditional SuZhou garden component of the rock boulder and the miniaturized landscape. Some of the traditional gardens also incorporate an element of circulation with these rocks, so that they become both miniature, but also belvedere and observation. Sunken Ground concept uses these traditions to generate a diverse experience where the levels inside the pots are thought so that visitors can experience the full three dimensionality of the park, climbing to the top of the pot, looking at other pots and the flow of people around. Finally, pavement and plan patterns flow along the entire site, giving it a sense of totality, continuity and ultimate harmony to the park. These pots which contain external ecological environment are similar to the others in terms of material. But due to the fact of enclosure, visitors will not be able to enter. Inside of them are sets of artificial ecological system which are also self-sufficient, in whichmsome technical tools will be used.
