Liuzhou Housing, China

LONGTAN PARK 7 Apr 2008 STATUES IN THE PARK Next to Liuzhou, a city in the south of China that is located on the edge of the exceptionally beautiful Karst mountain range and is protected as a World Heritage site, a limestone mine is situated. In this mine five of these beautiful mountains are dramatically cut into half. This situation so close to the city attracts developers anxious to create housing areas in and next to the city. The city seeks housing developments for its growing middle class citizens. Can the creation of a new housing area in the mine be used for further restoration of the park? Can we turn this into an operation that restores the beauty of and creates a continuation with the surrounding landscape? And that stop the erosions of the already cut mountains? Putting the 2,700 houses in the valley would harm the potential continuation of the park and would avoid the protection of the eroded mountains, while also creating houses without views and ventilation. By “cladding” the escarpments with the houses the potential continuation of the park can be arranged. It can protect the eroded mountains from further erosion and would create houses with a view and ventilation. The buildings appear like statues in the park, like the four presidents on Mt. Rushmore. The slopes have been carefully researched and mapped. It distinguishes different zones: non-steep zones with hard rocks that can be used with columns only; steep zones with hard rocks that can easily be used for construction and stability through dowels; zones with cracks that need to be avoided and lead to outside areas in the new city; and zones at the bottom that need to be cleaned from loose rocks from potential “hollow” spaces with communal access grottos. The houses are conceived as individual “boxes with a view” that respect the desire for individuality and that avoid a “hotel” feeling. Their positions follow the natural topography of the slopes. The irregularity leads to houses with differentiated terraces. A three-meter distance between the houses and the rocks is maintained to allow for natural ventilation. The floors and walls of the houses are made of concrete, mixed with the local rocks in order to “blend” the houses with the mountains. They are positioned on columns and stabilized by dowels where needed. The differentiation of the needed dowels and props leads to an intriguing spatial differentiation of the vertical village: it echoes clearly the structure of the mountains. Stairs follow the empty spaces in between the boxes. It leads to a web of “streets” through these vertical villages. Liuzhou residential project images + information from MVRDV 070408