The site possesses very strong natural characters, which situates inside a steep valley full of greenery. In order to keep its original charm, the first idea to develop the project brief is to design a sustainable city to merge with the nature. Moreover, due to its close proximity to the universities, youngsters are expected to be the major target group in the future so that the architecture should carry a sense of energy and youthfulness. Therefore, our design concept for the Master Planning is to create a Sustainable City as a ‘Green Valley Hub’.

In order to strengthen the bonding with the local context, our idea is to distill and extract the unique cultural symbols and connotations of traditional Guangxi community and re-interpret them with a new design language, so that the traditional culture can be injected with new meaning and inspiration. After detail study of the local culture, two cultural artefacts, Zhuang Jin (Local Embroidered Textiles) and Embroidered Lucky Ball are selected and further conceptualized as the design methodology in master planning design.

To deal with the huge level difference of the site, a landscape axis is introduced to link up the commercial area at the bottom of the valley with the residential area at the top of the knoll. Besides the private carriageways inside the residential area, the residents can have an option to move leisurely from their home to the shopping area through the landscape axis, which dotted with different nodes on the way. So the users are encouraged to take more exercise and embrace the slow paced lifestyle.

In order to fuse with the nature, the massing of the commercial block is in organic form to merge with the terrain of the site, as if it is grown from the valley.  The roof gardens at different levels are designed to seamlessly connect to the valley at interval, of which are connected by a continuous ramp so that the users can slowly and freely move into the natural spaces without special notice nor effort. Staggering double-story shops are introduced to increase the shopfront area and create interesting shopping spaces.