Architects: AESEU Architectural Technology and Art studio
Area: 800 m²
Year: 2019
Photographs: Timeraw Studio, ATA studio, Zhongning
Lead Architect: Zhu Li
Landscape Design: Hassell studio (Shanghai)
Construction: Tangshan Branch of Nanjing West Road and Bridge Group Co., Ltd
Design Team: Zhu Li, Jiajun Wang
Client: Nanjing Tangshan Construction Investment Development Co., Ltd
Structure and MEP: Southeast University Yi Gou studio, The Fifth Institute
City: Nanjing
Country: China
The Tourist Service Station for Tangshan Ape Man Cave, designed by AESEU Architectural Technology and Art Studio, reimagines a basic restroom and ticket office as a richly immersive space rooted in local landscape and cultural memory. Located in Nanjing’s Tangshan Ancient Ape Cave Scenic Area, renowned for ancient ape ruins, the station is set between a flood channel and a city road, with bamboo forests and canals defining the scenery. The design integrates these elements, creating interactive spaces along the canal, including a lantern-like corridor bridge and rammed earth and rubble walls that blend with the natural setting. Two primary pathways—one from the parking area and another from the main scenic entrance—are woven into the design, along with rest, office, and restroom areas, enhancing the spatial flow and visitor experience. Construction uses locally inspired methods, such as rammed earth walls, rubble masonry, and prefabricated steel trusses, balancing traditional craftsmanship and modern technique. Completed in 2019, the building incorporates adaptive features, such as tidal restrooms and canal-side seating, fostering a deep connection between visitors and the landscape. Since COVID-19, the building has evolved to serve as a rest bar and property management office, demonstrating flexible design and maintaining its commitment to site-specific architecture that draws from Feng Jizhong’s Helou Xuan, merging contemporary structure with regional identity.
Project Background
The initial request from the client in 2017 was straightforward: “Build a larger restroom for this area.” The project is located in the Nanjing Tangshan Ancient Ape Cave Scenic Area, a renowned tourist attraction outside Nanjing known for ancient ape fossil discoveries. Due to the mountainous topography, a flood channel runs east-west along the slope, marking the source of the Tangshui River, Tangshan’s main waterway. The building site is situated on the northern mountain slope, confined to a narrow strip between the flood channel and a city road. Limited by space, the scenic area has long struggled with outdated service facilities. The aim of this project is to relocate the existing small ticket and management offices near the parking area to a larger site and to build a public restroom to enhance the visitor experience.
Memory of the Place
The project’s seemingly simple task—to relocate a ticket office and expand restroom facilities—prompted deeper reflection on integrating regional character and contemporary value into the design, allowing visitors to gain a lasting impression of the site. Key features of the area include bamboo forests and the flood-control canals with high, rough stone retaining walls, often covered in moss and water stains, evoking a hidden, tranquil landscape beneath the foliage. While the canal disappears underground at the main square, two structures stand out: the management office across the flood channel, which creatively navigates the site’s constraints, and a simple e-bike shed for employees, constructed with steel columns, truss arches, and wooden purlins, blending with the surrounding forest. These human-made elements reveal that landscape becomes meaningful through interaction with people in the space. Inspired by this, the design team sought to reintroduce these spatial elements to new users, creating an experience that conveys the site’s memory and meaning through their interactions with the space.
Order and Direction
After on-site investigation, it was determined that two primary pedestrian pathways exist on the site: one path crosses the canal and serves primarily the crowd coming from the parking area; the other is used by visitors entering from the scenic spot’s main entrance square. With these two near-parallel paths only 20 meters apart, the design aimed to create an interesting interplay within this limited space. To achieve this, clusters of bamboo along the canal were incorporated into a “folding gallery” inspired by garden designs, employing twists and screens to form three parallel paths along the canal. These paths include a resting and waiting area on the north side of the canal, a path leading to the restroom along the canal’s south side, and an internal office pathway near the bamboo forest. In response to the primary path from the scenic area’s entrance, certain building volumes are angled slightly along an east-west axis, creating spatial pockets with a subtly blurred sense of direction. The resulting collision of volumes with differing orientations disrupts visitors’ perception of spatial order, introducing an unusual and layered sense of spatial experience.
Canal
Initially an overlooked feature, the canal becomes a central landscape element by encouraging interaction. The design creates several points of engagement along the canal’s path: at the culvert’s end, users can view the canal’s full length and its integration with the surrounding architecture. Along the steel corridor by the canal, a row of benches set against the wall transforms the canal into a focal point for appreciation. Across the canal, under preserved bamboo groves, two corner benches offer visitors a restful spot to lounge in the afternoon. Crossing the canal via a lantern-shaped bridge of steel and U-shaped glass—echoing the design of the nearby management room—adds an element of exploration. This bridge, with its blurred edges, creates an intriguing transition, inviting users to experience the canal as if entering a hidden, mysterious area. The design strives to give visitors a space that reveals more depth and character with each encounter, avoiding monotony.
Wall
To enhance the visitor experience, the design utilizes walls to divide and define the space, creating both separation and fluidity. Various sheet walls connect the architecture with the bamboo forests and canal, integrating natural elements into the built environment. On the north side, a long rammed earth wall provides a buffer from the noise of the parking area and nearby roads, leaving a single small entrance to frame the site’s horizontal expanse and establish a distinct identity. To the south, a rubble wall separates interior spaces from the bamboo forest, with vertical windows and gaps in the building’s herringbone roof that allow bamboo shadows to filter inside. These two long walls, north and south, frame a garden-like setting along the canal at the mountain’s base. Within this garden, the walls vary—long, short, angled, framing, rough, or translucent—serving as backdrops for the plants and canvases for shifting light and shadow. This layering of walls creates an immersive environment, blending architectural elements with the natural surroundings.
Local Construction
The construction of a building continually records the local and contemporary context in terms of structure, materials, and methods, distinguishing environmental construction from purely local construction. Typically referred to as on-site construction, this approach emphasizes the use of readily available materials and simple, controllable techniques that allow for easy maintenance and replacement. This process fosters a deep connection between people and the environment, creating bonds beyond mere appearances. For the project’s narrow canal-side location, lifting and ramming techniques were central. The building’s pitched roof uses compact triangular steel trusses with a hinged connection to the columns, prefabricated in the factory, then hoisted and welded with tie rods on-site for precise alignment and to resist lateral force. The roof’s structural layers—steel purlins, glued bamboo rafters, and bamboo panels—intentionally expose construction details, echoing the original carport found on-site. The corridor connecting the sloped-roof buildings is supported by cross-shaped steel columns (112 x 112), bearing a glass roof framed by bamboo louvers. To counter torsion, a flange is welded to the web end of each column, with glued bamboo filling the resulting cavity to give the columns a sleeker appearance. These visible structural elements emphasize force distribution, harmonizing with the natural strength seen in the surrounding bamboo forest.
Ramming
In this context, “ramming” covers both ramming and masonry techniques used for constructing rammed earth concrete walls and rubble stone walls. The rammed earth concrete wall combines soil, sand, gravel, and cement, mixed in specific proportions within formwork. Reinforcement is added, and each layer is compacted with a hand-held pneumatic rammer, yielding a wall that is stronger and more moisture-resistant than traditional rammed earth. The masonry of rubble walls in this project prioritizes concrete components for structural elements such as the foundation, lintels, coping, and corner protection. This technique of stone mortar cutting, which became common in the 1970s and 1980s, is rarely practiced today. Like rammed earth walls and traditional rubble masonry, it embodies an element of unpredictable craftsmanship. Here, the construction team innovatively used electric grinding wheels in place of the traditional axe to shape the sides and tops of stones, introducing convenience while maintaining the rough character of handcraft. The design approach emphasizes the coexistence of controlled and spontaneous construction methods, acknowledging both as essential responses to the environment. This blend allows for a balance between precision and creative adaptation in the built structure.
From Completion to Use
The project was completed in 2019, originally intended to serve as a ticket office and public restroom. It included a “tidal toilet” area, normally closed, that could be integrated flexibly into either the men’s or women’s restrooms during peak hours to accommodate high visitor volume. However, with the onset of COVID-19 at the end of 2019, plans to use the space as a tourist facility were delayed for three years. During this time, the role of the scenic area changed considerably. The entrance area at the mountain’s base was repurposed as an urban park for the surrounding community, and the building adapted to new functions, operating as a tourist rest bar and property management office while still maintaining restroom facilities. The architect was struck by the building’s transformation over time; with minimal human activity, plants began to grow freely throughout, creating a natural and untamed aesthetic. Reflecting on a summer visit, the architect described sitting by the canal, surrounded by blue sky, shadows, earth, stone, and vegetation, evoking a scene reminiscent of Dali’s work. Special appreciation was given to the landscape design firm, Hassell, which integrated the architectural vision seamlessly into the urban park, respecting and enhancing the design’s original intent. The project thus transcended its short-term functions, evolving organically and connecting past, present, and future landscapes. In this way, from the original structures to new landscapes, each component contributes to the ongoing “narrative” of the site’s memory.
Towards “Helou Xuan”
“Helou Xuan,” created by architect Feng Jizhong, is a tea pavilion located in Shanghai’s Songjiang Fangta Garden. Functionally, it is a simple space where visitors can relax and play chess; however, its architectural form is distinctly modern. This blending of function and form resonates with many Chinese architects, each perhaps finding unique meaning in it. For the architect, “Helou Xuan” represents an approach where Chinese architects navigate local identity without becoming confined by it, creating contemporary yet locally resonant architecture in a relaxed and unforced way. This mindset toward “creating locally and freely” embodies an attitude worth embracing in architectural design.
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Project Location
Address: Tangshan, Jiangning District, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
