an undulating roof inspired by chinese scrolls tops this elderly care center in china

sunlay design and sunlay-fangwei architects have developed the ‘taikang gui-garden elderly care community center’ for a site in the east of nanning city in china. articulated by a largely glazed main façade that connects to a sprawling park, the project broke ground in february 2020 and is expected to be completed by 2022.

image by SAN

to the north of the site is a large natural park, part of which extends to the northeast corner of the project. there is a sprawling ecological park in the northeast of the base that offers beautiful landscape views and provides a sense of rustic charm. there is a river passing through the front of the base, echoing the distance of the ecological park. the natural environment is picturesque. however, with a maximum height difference of 29 meters, the site posed a challenge for the team to solve. 

image by sunlay-fangwei architects

the taikang gui-garden elderly care community center designed and led by zhanghua and he wei is located in the center of the facility, designed according to the original topography and integrated with natural landscape. by using modern design techniques to reinterpret the landscape of picturesque villages, an ideal natural living environment for the elderly is created. the space underneath its curved roof depicts the charm of a karst landform. as one walks along the long corridor of the club, they may take in the scenery of the ecological park, as one would appreciate a landscape painting unfolding slowly.

image by sunlay-fangwei architects

‘the architecture is a traditional chinese ink painting scroll drawn by continuous eaves under which senior residents can feel the mountain and water landscape during rainy season in the south. in the meantime, the architecture itself has become part of the scenery.’

image by SAN

the community center has six functional sections including a university for the residents, library, fitness center, multi-function hall, civic as well as food center. the above-ground ground floor area is 98,793.21 ft2 (9,178.19 m2), serving the entire community as a public space. several major functional sections, together with the adjacent experience pavilion that has community display and sales functions, extend linearly around the park and are connected by a public promenade, forming a half-embracing state of the park.

image by SAN

at the same time, a vast landscape belt has been established around the center for enabled living. the landscape belt connects the commercial pedestrian street from east to west, which offers greater convenience in daily life. a variety of local ornamental flowers and trees are regularly planted. with the landscape changing with the seasons, residents can walk slowly along the belt to get close to nature or watch the rain from the mountains under the big eaves.

image by sunlay-fangwei architects

the building roof adopts a single-layer grid structure to construct a continuous curved surface, which reduces the thickness of the structure and increases the clear height of the building. the roof adopts a flat-lock system, and the exterior finish material uses modern material titanium zinc plate, which has high ductility. at the same time, zinc as a recyclable material reduces energy consumption in the production process. the overlapping of rectangular roof panels inherits the overlapping method of local residential roof tiles and continues the tradition with modern technology.

image by SAN

design generation

site plan

first floor

second floor

section A-A

section B-B

north facing elevation

south facing elevation

project info:

project name: taikang gui-garden elderly care community center

location: nanning city, guangxi province, china
program: elderly care community center, elderly university, nursing home, restaurant, entertainment
architecture design: sunlay design & sunlay-fangwei architects
property owner: taikang healthcare investment holdings co.,ltd.
lead architect: zhanghua, he wei
design team: xulin, yan ran, zhang yihang, piao junxue, xu zhen, tong shangren, wang tao, li yuxi, tang junhan, liu xiaoya, cui jiahui
structure consultant: BIAD research department of structure
electrical and mechanical consultant: WSP engineering technology (beijing) co., ltd.
façade consultant: shanghai kighton facade design & consultants co., ltd.
landscape consultant: guangzhou s.p.i design(chongqing) co., ltd.
interior consultant: HBA 
lighting consultant: PRO lighting consultant
construction drawing design: guangxi institute of building research & design
rendering: SAN
GFA: 98,793.21 ft2 (9,178.19 m2)
design time: 2019 – 2020
project phase: under construction