Yu Cui Court

Location: Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China

Client: Zhoushan Hongshen Dadi Real Estate Development Co ltd

Building Floor Area:  33000sqm     Site area: 78000sqm

Completion: Phase one, 2009, Phase two, 2012, Phase Three, 2014

Design Team:  J Wu, P Li, ZQ Wu, W Yin, YL Qu, R He

 

Concept

The site features a cultivated valley, a redundant reservoir and related brooks catching and discharge rainfalls and runoffs. The masterplan reinterprets traditional fish-bone spatial structure. The existing flood channel /brook is retained, however its path is rectified to a level, and woven into the fish-bone structure, and also treated as a landscape feature. The reservoir is preserved en-situ together with some camphor trees in the valley, and forms the bub of twisted axis. The main servicing building stays closely with the gravity dam and contains a gym and an indoor pool.

Building on a sloppy valley, architects developed a back-to-back solution based on the traditional Chinese courtyard residential block to satisfy the expectation of achieving density and privacy in on goal.   These patio-centered plans ‘push’ the built area (the solid) of each lot against one or two sides of boundaries to make the un-built area (the void) more tangible,  these outdoor spaces could easily otherwise scattered if left over around the buildings. Also high and solid party walls developed from the housing tradition also help with enhancing privacy.

For most of the houses, the floor layouts are designed into L or C shapes to reflect the above principle. Simple massing works in harmony with concentrated stone curving to reflect local culture, to generate a modernist’s Art Deco.