Botanica meditation center / HAS design and research
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Text description provided by the architects. Botanica Meditation Center is located on the outskirts of Hefei Old Town. Over the past 30 years, with the rapid growth of Hefei’s population, the city has changed from a single core area to a multi-center model in a very short time and has come under unprecedented pressure of intensive development. This kind of development phenomenon occurs not only in Hefei but also in all Chinese metropolitan cities, reflecting the need for Chinese people to adapt and cooperate with the rhythm of work and life under the rapid development that s is produced in a short time.
The owner of this project has worked in the real estate field in the past, under the high pressure of the pace of work, she has always had an incomparable love for plants. She dreams of establishing a botanical garden that is open to the public and can offer community residents classes in meditation, yoga, tai chi and other spiritual training to educate them in the aesthetic concept of a “slow life”. .
HAS Design and Research conducted extensive research on this project and found that traditional botanic gardens have huge reservoirs of water. Although they can be used as irrigation systems for botanical gardens, they are spatially separated into two systems: plants and equipment. At the Botanica Meditation Center, HAS (Hung And Songkittipakdee) has overturned the conventional method. First, the water tank of the traditional equipment was hidden under the ground, so that the structure of the water tank which is on the ground can be transformed into a multi-functional space, including places for meditation, monitoring and emptying.
Then there is the extensive underground sprinkler system, which extends to every corner of the botanical garden. The extended sprinkler system not only solves the problem of the traditional water tank and the botanic garden deviating from each other, but also adds to the uniquely designed water mist device in a way more poetic which reflects the ritual sense of meditation, yoga, Tai Chi. , and other activities. During the day, the Botanica Meditation Center exhibits a calm and rich sense of landscape hierarchy, providing a natural resting place for people and local insects, birds and squirrels; in the afternoon, the water mist system will sprinkle automatically, in addition to generating a lot of mist. All of these elements are added to simulate the scene of morning mist surrounding Emerald Lake around the site and to provide a spiritually open place for meditation.
In addition, Botanica Meditation Center’s facade materials and landscape stone are all sourced from local Hefei travertine. Hundreds of stones are beaten by hand by local artisans with irregular edges as if it were a natural phenomenon formed by water mist erosion. The Botanica meditation center, which can provide a large amount of water mist irrigation system, not only brings a fresh micro-ecosystem to the environment, but its hidden shape allows residents to have a dramatic and extraordinary experience. morning, afternoon and night. .
