Architects: Archermit
Area: 2,210 m²
Year: 2021
Photography: QiuYu, Arch-Exist Photography, HereSpace Photography, ICYWORKS, bpi
Lead Architect: Youcai Pan
Design Director: Zhe Yang (Partner)
Technical Director: Renzhen Chen (Partner)
Structural Engineer: Xu Du
Design Team: Qinmei Hu, Yi He, Yuanjun Gou, Rui Yang, Zixuan Liu, Yaxian Zhao, Yutao Feng, Xiangxin Ge, Zhiying Song, Shuhua Ye, Maosen Zeng (intern)
Lighting Design: bpi
Lighting Design Team: Sony Wang, Meng Chen, Qiangning Jiang, Xinyu Li, Haoyu Liu, Hong Peng, Jiangyue He, Yiting Wu, Ting Ye
Interior Design: ten space design
Interior Design Team: Jiajuan Wu, Miao Shu, Yi Zhu, Sha Luo
Construction Drawing Design: Chengdu Meisha Architectural Design Co., LTD
Construction Drawing Design Team: Jingwu Piao, Xin Chen, Jinju He, Jun Luo, Liping Wang
Construction: Sichuan Xinding Construction Engineering Co., LTD
Client: Sichuan Hope Huawu Industrial Development Group Co., LTD, Pengzhou Hope Shunchen Cultural Tourism Development Co., LTD
Location: Longmenshan Town, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province, China
Woyun Platform public building, designed by Archermit in Longmenshan Town, Pengzhou City, has created a rural civic center at the entrance of the National Giant Panda Forest Park, completed in 2021. Drawing from bamboo groves, clouds, and glacial stone formations, the architecture arranges public gathering, cultural exhibition, and landscape experience into three distinct levels. Parametric fabrication, integrated lighting, and a site-responsive water system merge symbolic narrative with functional infrastructure, encouraging social interaction across nearby villages while reinforcing regional ecological identity.
Positioned between the Jianjiang River and the foothills of the Longmen Mountains, the Woyun Platform anchors the building in a landscape where tectonic shifts and seasonal mists shape the visual and cultural horizon. The design responds not only to its ecological context but also to the social fragmentation affecting the surrounding villages. The architects developed the idea of a village parlor to address the erosion of collective space, embedding informal civic life into the architecture without fixed programming. The formal vocabulary avoids direct representation and instead translates local materials and atmospheres into abstracted spatial conditions that support daily use, cultural ritual, and seasonal change.
Archermit developed the project in response to the social condition of four nearby villages. The villages of Dawan, Taizi, Yudong, and Dongping faced the diminishing role of communal space due to rural depopulation and rapid urban expansion. The architects introduced the idea of a village parlor to reintroduce informal civic infrastructure. The open ground floor, defined by a grid of slender white columns, supports daily use without fixed programming. These columns reference bamboo groves and obscure the structural system behind a symbolic spatial rhythm that reconnects the building to rural life.
The middle volume contains a suspended dome constructed from over 2600 custom-curved aluminum panels. Each panel is perforated with circular holes in three sizes. The layout of the holes is generated through parametric control to produce a randomized pattern that simulates a star-filled sky. The lighting system avoids conventional fixtures. Instead, LED floodlights are placed at precise nodes inside the dome cavity to project light across the interior edges of the perforations. This method produces a diffuse starry atmosphere visible from the outside. Lighting features at the main entrance and sunken plaza extend the visual logic with animated effects that reference meteor trails and celestial constellations.
The central stair leads into a reception zone where light, sound, and material simulate an immersive environment. A winding ceiling strip guides movement while water-printed lighting on the floor creates a sense of fluidity. A textured wall composed of rock, vegetation, animal forms, and soil references the ecology of the Longmen Mountains. Stainless steel surfaces reflect these forms with a mirror-like finish, while ambient sound recordings from insects and birds reinforce the experience. A water curtain drops from the ceiling and defines a spatial boundary. Inside the adjacent lounge area, sparse bamboo-shaped elements create visual intimacy. Interior furnishings repeat panda-inspired elements in material and color without direct imitation.
The rooftop level frames a view of the mountains through shallow reflecting pools. Two white structures float above the surface. These volumes reference glacial stones shaped by ice and river erosion. Their smooth forms are set to echo the geometry of Feilai Peak and the boulders in the Jianjiang River valley. The roof forms part of a cyclical water system modeled on natural hydrology. Rainwater collects in rooftop basins, flows through concealed interior channels, reappears at the ground level within the bamboo forest, and is returned to the top through a hidden circulation mechanism. This closed-loop embeds the water cycle into the spatial logic of the building.
The design does not attempt to imitate the surrounding landscape. Instead, it constructs a symbolic structure rooted in the geological and cultural patterns of the region. The architects wrote, “Woyun Platform expresses Archermit’s thoughts and explorations on people’s inner longing to return to nature, nature, and tradition.” That intention is embedded not only in the formal vocabulary but also in the way the building invites shared occupation and spatial memory. Through architectural clarity, parametric construction, and narrative continuity, Woyun Platform offers a contemporary public space deeply tied to rural identity and ecological presence.
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Project Location
Address: Longmenshan Town, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province, China
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
