Folding Garden / ZHUBO DESIGN Chief Architect Studio

Architects: ZHUBO DESIGN
Area: 1403 m²
Year: 2018
Photographs: Zaohui Huang, Courtesy of ZHUBO DESIGN
Manufacturers: LOPO, SHANDONG GUANLU BAICHUAN
Lead Architect: Chong Xia
Outfit Design: Shengqi Lai
Other Participants: BIAD Beijing Institute of Architecture & Design, SNP, L&A
Customer: Poly SHOKAI
Design Group: Chief Architect Studio
Chief Architect: WeiZhong Yang
Design Team: Daiwen Tang, Chudu Su, Mengchuan Yang, Strahinja Petrovic
City: Daxing
Country: China

The Folding Garden, designed by ZHUBO DESIGN Chief Architect Studio, is located in Jiugong Town, Daxing District, Beijing. Initially serving as a pre-sales center for Poly Real Estate Group Co., Ltd, the project aims to inherit traditional Chinese royal building techniques while adapting the expansive Chinese garden system to a compact site. The design employs a continuous line, creating a folding wall that defines the garden and supports the column-free interior. A north-south corridor links three courtyards, creating natural tension with pure geometric shapes. The garden path fosters a connection between users and the architecture, while the three courtyards reflect the philosophy of “one or the other.” The undulating brick facade resembles a mountain, blending the architecture with its natural surroundings.

Folding garden / zhubo design chief architect studio

Folding Garden is located in Jiugong Town, Daxing District, Beijing. Initially designed as a pre-sales center for Poly Real Estate Group Co., Ltd, this community center needed to reflect its historical and cultural context. Jiugong, also known as “Xanadu of the old Yamen,” was once the Summer Palace for Qing emperors’ hunting activities. Moreover, Nanhaizi was the largest imperial garden and hunting ground in Northern China. Through this “Gardening Attempt,” the architects aimed to address a challenging question: how to preserve traditional Chinese royal architectural principles while adapting the vast Chinese garden system to fit within a more compact site.

“Write at one stretch, just use one continuous line” – this is the most direct way to describe the environment in ancient Chinese painting and gardening. The architects employed a continuous wall across the ground, winding and strewn at random, mimicking the act of folding. This linear wall shapes the garden area and serves as the structure supporting the column-free interior space. A full north-south corridor links three courtyards that constantly shift from left to right, inspiring the name “Folding Garden.” By contrasting the straight axis space with the folded wall movement, the design aims to create a space full of natural tension using pure geometric shapes.

The winding path leads to a secluded, quiet place, embodying the garden’s artistic conception, which begins with the garden path. Inspired by the turning fantasy of Liuyuan Garden in Suzhou, the design subtly crafts a dynamic path to build a connection between the users and the architecture itself. Though only a hundred meters separate the road from the main entrance, the key to designing this free path lies in creating the mystery of “within sight but not within reach.” The dynamic geometric path aligns with the flowing folding wall, extending the walking distance and providing varied visual experiences within the garden. As the saying goes, “There is a landscape in the garden, and there is a garden in the landscape.”

The garden is designed based on a straight axis, with three yards reversing the internal and external relations along the central axis. This approach serves as a metaphor for the Chinese traditional philosophy of “one or the other” through the use of architectural space language. The “First Courtyard” is a two-floor-high underground yard located to the left of the main entrance. Outdoor stairs, surrounded by green space on the lower level, correspond to the indoor folding staircase within the same column down.

The “Second Courtyard” visually extends from the sand table and discussion area to the right of the main axis. It encompasses both the experiential terraced landscape area and the expansive green square.

The “Third Courtyard” is situated to the left of the axis and serves as the private garden for the office area on both floors. The green courtyard represents “one,” while the interior space represents “the other,” with a long axis corridor positioned in between. This design creates a contrast and integration between the natural green yards and the pure wooden pent-roof interior, embodying the poetic essence of the folding garden and the concept of “one or the other.”

The folding garden is covered by undulating flowing bricks, resembling a mountain in the forest. From the city road, the building’s outline is barely visible through the treetops, but as one walks into the garden, the circuitous roof remains the constant visual focus. The continuous, unbroken design invites viewers to appreciate the architecture both up close and from a distance, fostering a deeper understanding of the folding garden.

When the sun rises above the trees and illuminates the flowing wall, a sequence of lights appears: the beautiful forest, the radiant green square, the striking straight eave, and the glowing sunken courtyard. The sunlight sculpts the space into a visually stunning geometric mountain, creating a breathtaking scenic view.