“Leaning on the edge of the cliff, overlooking in all directions, enjoying the heavenly leisure.”
In Li Bai’s verses, Mount Tai, the chief of the Five Sacred Mountains, breathed the air of the world and accommodated the most beautiful scenery of all. Faced with the ancient strata that have undergone 3 billion years of evolution, human beings are as small as a drop in the ocean, and how buildings, the habitat of human beings, will be integrated into the natural order? Jiunvfeng Bubble Pool is located in Dongximen Village, Tai’an, Shandong, a typical mountain village in northern China, occupying the natural beauty of the surrounding area of Mount Tai. However, due to the loss of the native population, the village is gradually going into a depression.
On the other hand, the cities are growing at a high density during the peak construction period. Crowding and high pressure make urban residents yearn for natural pastoral scenery, but there is nowhere to meet their needs, coincidentally, the village eagers to revive urgently needs a stimulator. In the design concept, Jiunvfeng Bubble Pool is a strategic response to nature, and it is the “acupoint” for the rebirth of the whole declining village. The primitive poverty-stricken village to be renewed and the world-class magnificent scenery, the pool is located between the two, with its pure, transparent, flowing sense that balance the two kinds of temperament.
Jiunvfeng Bubble Pool is a pure white brush stroke in the village at the hillside. It is a response to the mountain forest and the magnificent sky. Dialoguing with the lingering twists and turns of the natural veins of Mount Tai, it resembles a precious shell lost in the clouds of paving-stones. The location selection and function placement were inspired by geographical conditions and spatial demands. Walk to the entrance of the village, pass through the guest rooms scattered along the mountain, and climb up the steps along the path made of original stone in the mountains. The pure white pool appears in the forest vegetation.
The function placement of the Bubble Pool is derived from the hydrophilicity of people and the healthy and energetic life attitude of urban people. It forms a complete streamline and function linkage with the guestrooms at the foot of the mountain and the Study on the mountain. The white special-shaped curved surface forms a free space opening, combined with the large-area transparent facade, and the environmental restoration and landscape transformation of the surrounding mountains, blurring the boundary of inside and outside. Internally, it creates a sense of scale of a person, and the space defined by the cantilevered curved roof gives the experience a sense of security and comfort; externally, it is a kind of introversion in the face of vastness, and the weakening of the volume to interpret the subordination relationship between architecture and nature.
The sea bath area is a hollow opening without columns and walls, facing the mountains and forests, which achieves a true zero-distance contact with nature. The cantilevered roof defines the use of space. In the sea bath, the free curve of the white roof in view echoes the contours of the distant mountains, and the native scenery is framed in the pool. In order to achieve the effect of rising from the ground and the all-white and smooth modeling features of the Bubble Pool, the construction process balances the relationship between the building, the landscape, and the interior, making them complement each other, while the structure and materials are as simple as possible. The fitness, changing room, and sea bath areas adopt three different facade forms.
From the perspective of function, the three forms of “virtual”, “real” and “formless” are used to interpret the transparency that the design wants to express: The gym opens to the south. The opening surface is separated by hidden columns and connected to the glass wall. The “virtual” facade captures the scenery of the village, introduces daylight, and defines the thermal insulation indoor fitness area. The changing room has a high requirement of privacy. The metal mirror facade material with high reflection characteristics is used. The flowing outdoor scene is mapped to the building exterior wall to ensure the “realness” of the internal space and let the building volume “disappear” in nature, presenting a kind of reverse ultimate transparency.
