邂逅 The Garden of Encounter

城市婚介市場和“剩女”的文化綽號揭示了當今中國年輕女性面臨的一種特殊的婚姻壓力，這種壓力既有政治原因，也有中國文化背景。

該設計解決了女性對愛情缺乏自主權並批評了對婚姻的功利主義態度，並探索了建築在北京市中為了真正親密的相遇創造環境的作用。該設計基地位於北京的主要地鐵站，審視了通勤過程中被忽視的事件和遭遇，並將日常交通習慣重新想像成浪漫邂逅的機會。雖然北京的城市環境是為了效率和交通而設計的，沒有浪漫的空間，但我設想了一種新的類型，即現有地鐵站上方的空中花園。該設計受到中國傳統文人園林的園林設計策略的啟發，旨在在不受歡迎的城市環境中創造親密、聯繫和浪漫的時刻。

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	Urban matchmaking markets and the cultural moniker of “leftover women” reveal a peculiar marriage pressure faced by young women in China today, which is rooted in both political causes and Chinese cultural backgrounds. Addressing a women’s lack of autonomy towards love and critiquing the utilitarian attitude towards marriage, the project explores the role of architecture in creating settings for genuine and intimate encounters in the city of Beijing. Sited at major subway stations in Beijing, the project examines the overlooked events and encounters of the commute and re-imagines daily transit routines into opportunities for romantic encounters. While Beijing’s ground urban environment is designed for efficiency and traffic, not allowing rooms for romance, I envision a new typology of a garden in the air above existing subway stations. Inspired by tactics of garden design in traditional Chinese literati gardens, the project aims to create moments of intimacy, connection and romance within an undesirable urban context.
作品說明Description (1000word)
	The Garden of Encounter The project is kickstarted by an interest in the urban matchmaking scenes and the cultural moniker of leftover women in China. I am tackling this peculiar marriage pressure faced by young women in China today, which is rooted in both political causes and in Chinese cultural backgrounds. Critiquing the hasty and utilitarian attitude towards marriage, the project explores the role of architecture in creating settings for natural and genuine encounters in the city of Beijing. Sited at major subway stations, I re-imagine daily transit routines into opportunities for romantic encounters. While Beijing’s ground urban environment is designed for efficiency and traffic, I envision a new typology of a garden in the air above existing subway stations. Inspired by tactics of garden design in traditional chinese literati gardens, the project aims to create moments of intimacy, connection and romance within an undesirable urban context. While positioned as an urban escape, the cloud garden also has a dual function of nurturing the ground by producing clean energy and clean air. Take GuoMao station, a major subway interchange sited in Beijing’s CBD as a test site. Access to the garden is through a helium lantern lift positioned above current subway exits. Traditionally, Chinese lantern festival is also valentine’s day when young men and women meet under the lanterns. The lantern motif, therefore, is borrowed here alluding to the idea of a romantic exploration. Each station exit is an access to one pocket garden unit consisting of three types pavilions and a cloud path connecting each. Each pocket garden uses balloon, tether, wind, night sky, moonlight and city views as the palette to construct a new landscape in the sky, both referencing and re-interpreting the familiar elements of traditional Chinese gardens. Similar to the design of a journey in Chinese gardens, the cloud path uses helium balloons to cover, frame, leak and borrow views, creating anticipation and surprises along the walk. The top of the balloons is weaved with solar fibres to collect solar energy in the daytime, which is used for electric mobile stalls and street furniture on the ground to enliven the ground environment. The pavilion of wind made use of wind flutes and windsocks to create a symphony of wind, while the two can have a cup of tea underneath it. Functionally, it is also an air purification infrastructure, considering the air quality in Beijing’s context. The purification devices attached to the bottom layer of the balloon is responsible for clean air within the garden. In case the air quality drops to an extreme level, the cloud-seeding chimney on top will be activated to induce rainfall in the region. The pavilion of moonlight offers an intimate space for moon-gazing, while reflection panels installed under the boat-like structure reflects moonlight as a light source for the garden. The pavilion of city views referencing the structure of an airship yet alluding to the form of an pavilion, is an alternative means of transport between the subway interchanges, offering a different vision of the city and turning undesirable ground traffic into delightful views from the sky. The spaces of the garden are explored through journey of a woman as one day she visits the garden. It was just a day like any other working in the office. she received a message from the virtual app the “moon folk”, named after yuelao, or the old man under the moon, the traditional Chinese god of love and marriage. The moon folk is a cloud database where singletons sign up for a membership. She received a profile. Pondering for a moment, she sent out a friend request, a privileged function that only the women can exert in this system. As they chatted, she found him unusual, and sent out an invitation for a meet-up. “Maybe tomorrow, we could meet up after work?” “Though tomorrow is a windy day, it must be cold up there,” she thought. She clicked into the Garden of Encounter online accessory shop and bought herself a red scarf. On the day of the date, she walked out from the train. The train station here acted as a preparation room where she got her online-ordered scarf and a private space to tidy up her hair. On the way to the lantern lift, she walked past a makeshift shrine of the yuelao and prayed for good lucks for the night. As she arrived in the garden, she walked along the path and bumped into a symphony of wind. She paused, sat down, and thought that “It would be nice to know someone in the sound of Beijing’s wind”. Here he came. They talked and walked along the path, encountering spectacles of the moon, the pavilion and night sky, and decided to take an air ride to and enjoy the city views. Yet along the ride she started to feel a little uneasy. Somehow, he was not an interesting company to talk to. The subway became an easy excuse. “Sorry, but I would have to catch the next train” She walked back to the lantern lift. The lantern, offering the hope for an exploration, is also the portal to an exit, giving her the choice to reject and to leave. She let the red scarf fly away as she descended. Back to the station, she walked past the shrine again. She lighted up another incense, hoping for the best for her next date. The garden of encounter is imagined as a prototype to be implemented at an urban scale, along Beijing’s subway system. Weaving together the virtual and the physical, the cultural and the political, the state and the individual, the project aims to create a new ritual for “an encounter”, re-injecting anticipation, hope and surprise for this currently politicized and utilitarian activity.

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