Guangxi Yan | Wuxing Youxing Space Design

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Guangxi Yan | Wuxing Youxing Space Design

Information

  • Completion year: 2021
  • Gross Built up Area: 1700 sqm
  • Project Location: Nanning, Guangxi
  • Country: China
  • Lead Architects/Designer: Wei Zhixue, Gao Yuan
  • Design Team: Xie Kaiming, Wu Guibi, Pan Ping, Jiang Renpu, Huang Lei, Yu Yuanhui, Xu Peng, Qian Zhendie, Chen Wenjie, Liu Sicen, Zhang Duo, Sun Zheng
  • Engineering: Hangzhou Jutie Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd.
  • Landscape Consultants: Hangzhou Wallen Planting Art
  • Photo Credits: Pan Jie
  • Others: Qing Sui, Hangzhou Donghao Lighting Engineering Co., Ltd., Da Fu, Yi Hang, Tang Renhua, Hangzhou Wanlin Advertising Co., Ltd.
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Excerpt: Guangxi Yan is a restaurant designed by WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN is a miniature version of “mysterious Guangxi” that brings the marvellous natural landscape to the city’s bustling centre, entertaining guests in a welcoming gesture. The restaurant Guangxi Yan adopts traditional Guangxi cultural elements as the design thread, unifying the overall spatial design. After systematic concentration and artistic refinement, numerous representative local elements are presented in the space.

Project Description

[Text as submitted by Architect] Every Chinese has a similar version of a perfect landscape: above a vast expanse of misty and rippling waters and with lush forests surrounded, people fish and sing at sunrise and dusk. To experience this in the real world, there is nowhere else more appropriate than Guangxi.

The fascinating landscape of Guangxi is an exclusive unparalleled gift from Mother Nature. Hidden behind mountains, Guangxi, which used to be a part of the Baiyue region (the south of China in a broad sense) in ancient times, is renowned for its spectacular scenery. Large hills and mountains sprawl in the south, and five gigantic peaks meander in the north in this incredible land. Towering and overlapping hilly terrains intertwine with rivers flowing among and through. The renowned Lijiang River, which resembles a jade belt among mountain ranges, extends 164 km through Guilin and Yangshuo, contributing to a magnificent landscape. As a poet described, “As the boat sailing on green waves, I’m touring in a fascinating painting”, the aesthetic view of the Lijiang River has been highly praised for over a thousand years.

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Details of passage on the second floor © Pan Jie
Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Passage on the third floor © Pan Jie

Living in skyscrapers, modern people quickly forget the breathtaking land beneath their feet. The project, Guangxi Yan, is a miniature version of “mysterious Guangxi” that brings the marvellous natural landscape to the city’s bustling centre, entertaining guests in a welcoming gesture.

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Entrance space © Pan Jie

The restaurant Guangxi Yan adopts traditional Guangxi cultural elements as the design thread, unifying the overall spatial design. After systematic concentration and artistic refinement, numerous representative local elements are presented in the space. The journey from the Guangxi landscape to the dinner table reveals distinctive regional features and enables diners to perceive the brand’s values in the immersive ambience.

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Facade © Pan Jie

The restaurant’s facade resembles a great drum tower, a representative topology of local traditional architecture. When entering the hall, guests are greeted by two roofless Zhuang houses featuring mortise and tenon structures. This roofless design is derived from the tradition of Zhuang people, who invite honourable guests, relatives and friends to join the banquet held in a newly roofed and built house for the celebration. The hall is where the Guangxi Yan unveils its prelude.

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Dining area on the first floor © Pan Jie

As far as the sight reaches, Guangxi elements are everywhere throughout the space. The landscape of Lijiang River, rock paintings of Hua Mountain, Longji Rice Terraces, Zhuang silver ornaments, bronze drums, Zhuang brocade, Zhuang tie-dye, Zhuang embroidered balls, Zhuang People’s March 3rd Festival elements seem to be independent of one another. Each has its unique system in separate spaces, yet they remain connected in the ethnic culture of Guangxi. A specific mysterious realm behind each private dining room door reveals diverse Guangxi culture.

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Tie-dye-themed dining room © Pan Jie
Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Silver ornaments-themed dining room, Drum tower-themed dining room © Pan Jie

Modern expressions are adopted to translate traditional elements, which is the design’s key. The partition in the atrium extends from the first floor to the third floor, producing a magnificent effect. Made of translucent, ink-wash resin materials, it mimics local karst topography characterized by undulating mountains and winding rivers. As the line of sight extends, the partition seems undulating as rolling hills and flowing rivers. The micro mountain and water landscapes, which are elaborately designed yet arranged in a seemingly random way, echo the partition and show the fusion of the real and the virtual and bringing in nature. The overall design recalls a picture of distant mountains, gurgling water, lush trees and grey stones on the land of Guangxi. With twisting road, stream, bridge and house elements around, the space portrays a picture where people hold a great banquet to celebrate the completion of a new residence. The objects and emotions resonate with each other.

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Dining area on the first floor © Pan Jie
Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Dining area on the first floor © Pan Jie

Traditional elements are showcased in an unconventional and unique form, such as the sculpture that depicts a typical scene, the characteristic pattern of the Zhuang brocade embedded in the staircase handrails, the curtain decorated with Zhuang silver ornaments, the bronze drum-shaped lighting fixtures, the thematic art installations on the wall, and the traditional symbols inlaid on wood and carved on stones, all of which will blend the regional ethnic features with Oriental ambience. 

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Mezzanine dining area © Pan Jie

Traditional scenes, such as hydrangea flowers that imply a warm welcome, bronze drum worship ceremony, and the Gexu Singing Festival held on March 3rd, are extracted and translated into scenes through abstract expressions to inherit local millennia-old cultural heritage and show the pride and glory of the Zhuang minority.

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Passage on the second floor © Pan Jie
Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Bronze drum-themed dining room © Pan Jie

Guangxi Yan creates a splendid space empowered by engaging the natural landscape and rich culture of Guangxi. Local scenery, history and humanistic aesthetics nurtured by beautiful landscapes are converted into dining scenes. This space is like a hidden treasure waiting for guests to explore and unveil its beauty with an innate purity and primitiveness.

Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Zhuang brocade-themed dining room © Pan Jie
Guangxi Yan | WUXING YOUXING SPACE DESIGN
Zhuang brocade-themed dining room © Pan Jie

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