Golden A' Design Award Winner 2021
Tianxi No.1 Sales Center by Ben Wu emerges from a distinguished lineage of contemporary spatial practice that synthesizes Eastern contemplative traditions with the rigorous formal vocabulary of international minimalism, creating an environment that transcends commercial function to achieve genuine architectural poetry. The designer demonstrates remarkable command of material restraint, orchestrating a severely limited palette of stone, water, living vegetation, and carefully modulated light to produce spatial experiences of considerable emotional resonance. The composition pivots upon the dynamic relationship between the cantilevered bonsai specimen, its form suggesting decades of careful cultivation and philosophical engagement with nature, and the precise geometries of the architectural container, this dialogue between organic vitality and constructed order recalling principles fundamental to traditional garden design while expressed through emphatically contemporary means. Technical accomplishment manifests in the seamless integration of complex building systems, the concealed lighting that washes the rear wall with warm luminosity, the perfectly still water surface that doubles the spatial volume through reflection, and the dramatic angular ceiling coffers that modulate the overhead plane without compromising the atmosphere of calm. The raw-edged marble element positioned as a secondary focal point introduces deliberate material contrast, its unfinished surfaces and geological irregularity providing textural counterpoint to the polished precision surrounding it. One might observe in this careful arrangement an invitation to contemplation that honors ancient traditions of the scholar's retreat while serving thoroughly modern programmatic requirements. The suspended pendant fixture, with its suggestion of traditional lantern forms abstracted to essential geometry, perhaps signals the designer's conscious engagement with cultural memory filtered through contemporary sensibility. This work invites viewers to consider how commercial spaces might aspire to the condition of sanctuary, offering moments of stillness within the accelerated rhythms of contemporary life.
Located in the bustling downtown area of Shenzhen, Tianxi No.1 is full of commercial atmosphere and sees the hustle and bustle of the city. As a local high-end real estate, it hopes to convey a kind of elegant and secluded life of oriental humanities in the impetuous downtown. The entrance uses a wide waterscape to create a place atmosphere of the whole space, and in the core of the downtown, a sense of place is set off in a quiet way.