Project Overview

The GLORY OF THRONES project, which adheres to contemporary oriental aesthetics as its design guideline, uses innovative spatial narrative and material craftsmanship to construct a luxurious paradigm of a high-end residential community. Based on the core strategy of "creating a place spirit", the design team carries out a systematic spatial construction from urban interface to private courtyard, forming a three-level progressive home returning ceremonial system.

When the homeowners step into the community, the 80-meter-long urban landscape wall extends an inviting embrace towards them. The hotel-style lobby, resembling an artistic palace, creates a dreamy and luxurious atmosphere. After passing through the lobby, one arrives at the water courtyard. This area draws inspiration from the design concepts of Suzhou gardens and creates a poetic living environment through the round moon-shaped gate, the cascading waterfall pavilion, and the surrounding water features and green plants.

The fully-equipped club area, the parlour, the Jiangnan academy-style book bar, the boundary-free oxygen gym and the swimming pool with constant temperature, constant humidity, constant oxygen, constant cleanliness and constant tranquillity can meet the diverse needs of the owners for socialising, relaxation and fitness. The meticulously designed garden further enhances the style and quality of living.

Organisation

HZS

Team

Su Xinjie, Li Xinfang, Xu Tao, Cui Xingwei, Lu Chengbo, Han Jianbo, Jin Zhiwei, Tong Zhiyu, Lin Chengda, Yang Yinqiu

Project Brief

Adhering to the concept of "Taking extravagance as the boundary and creating exquisite and elegant buildings", the GLORY OF THRONES aims to create a high-end residential community. The project meticulously arranges the home returning flow lines, landscape design and club facilities, and integrates traditional and modern design elements. It uses high-end materials such as Blue Emerald Luxury Stone and pure copper, as well as exquisite techniques like custom slotting and water jet mosaic to create a living space with rich cultural connotations and modern texture, providing a comprehensive luxury living experience for the homeowners.

The club space should meet the diverse functional demands of the owners while maintaining the overall aesthetic style. When designing functional areas such as a gym and a swimming pool, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the layout of equipment, space planning and decoration design to ensure the perfect unity of functionality and aesthetics. The landscape axis draws inspiration from the spatial sequence of The Lingering Garden and uses a 6.7-meter-high suspended waterfall pavilion to create a visual focal point. The suspended ends use balustrades with glass panels to reduce the sense of volume.

The ground system integrates water jet mosaic technology and CNC engraving technology, and geometric translation is carried out based on the prototype of the city flower of Suzhou - the chrysanthemum. The central mirror-like water feature uses a frameless overflow technology, while the pneumatic fountain device helps to form a dynamic water curtain interface.

Project Innovation/Need

1. Cultural integration and innovation: The traditional oriental aesthetics and modern design techniques realise deep integration. For instance, Suzhou regional culture elements are incorporated into ceiling, floor and landscape designs, and the space is endowed with unique cultural connotations through the use of osmanthus mosaic and Suzhou garden design concepts. As a result, the boundaries between tradition and modernity are removed, and a living environment that combines historical depth with contemporary aesthetics is created.

2. Material technology innovation: The project introduces rare materials such as Blue Emerald Luxury Stone, as well as high-end custom slotting techniques and precise assembly technologies to fully showcase the unique texture and light effects of the materials. In terms of ground pavement, the high-pressure water jet cutting technology is employed to achieve precise processing of the stone joints, aiming to enhance the overall quality and elegance of the space.

3. Spatial experience innovation: It creates a multi-level spatial experience, uses an 80-meter oversized landscape wall to form an urban display surface at the entrance interface, and adopts modular stone texture and a lighting system to form dynamic visual tension. The hotel-style entrance lobby features a 12-meter-diameter curved dome to convey the sense of spatial tension. The ceiling decoration, located at the top and featuring a starry petal design with parametric technology, forms multi-level light and shadow penetration through the combination of acrylic light guide plates and LED light sources.

Design Challenge

1. Balance between materials and techniques: The selection of high-end materials such as Blue Emerald Luxury Stone, the need to ensure the material quality and design effect and strictly control the processing techniques and construction quality. For instance, for the core background wall with suspended Blue Emerald Luxury Stone curtain wall system, 476 pieces of stone with a size of 300×600mm are positioned using 3D scanning technology, and a 5mm tight joint technique is employed to achieve curved surface assembly, the natural mica crystals of these stones produce a blue light refraction effect ranging from 0.8 to 1.2 lux in a diffused light environment.

2. Cultural element integration: When integrating traditional and modern elements, it is necessary to properly control the application of cultural elements and avoid excessive accumulation or blunt fusion. For instance, when translating the Suzhou-style osmanthus elements into a mosaic pattern, we need to both retain their cultural characteristics and ensure their compatibility with modern design styles.

3. The overall planning and application of information technology design: The entire project implements BIM collaborative design and conducts 1:1 physical sample verification at key areas, the flatness of the stone paving is controlled within ± 0.5mm, and the colour temperature of the lighting is uniformly set at 3000K ± 5%. The three control methods of material contrast (CMF system), spatial permeability (VAV system), and light and shadow gradation (DALI system) ultimately help achieve a precise balance between modern luxury and regional context, creating a residential work with collection value.

Sustainability

1. Material selection: When choosing materials, priority should be given to the environmental performance of the materials. Some metal materials and stone products can adopt recyclable or low-energy consumption products to reduce the impact on the environment. Reasonable material planning can also reduce material waste.

2. Landscape design: The landscape design of the water courtyard and the garden focuses on ecological sustainability and uses local plant varieties that are highly adaptable to the environment to reduce irrigation and maintenance costs. Reasonable water system design helps achieve the recycling of water resources and creates a sustainable ecological landscape.

3. Energy utilisation: The facilities, including the swimming pool with constant temperature, constant humidity, constant oxygen, constant cleanliness and constant tranquillity in the club area, all adopt energy-saving equipment and intelligent control systems to optimise energy utilisation efficiency and reduce operational energy consumption. This enables the owners to enjoy a comfortable environment while achieving the goal of energy conservation and emission reduction.

4. Intellectualised design: The social area is equipped with a 10-meter-high book wall that integrates lighting and acoustic systems, and the fitness area utilises a breathing curtain wall to achieve an air exchange rate of ≥ 30 m³/h per person. The constant-temperature swimming pool employs an automatic water quality monitoring system to maintain the ORP value above 650 mV.