SHAN SHUI

‘‘Nature was regarded [by the Chinese] as possessing great power... as benign rather than malevolent and capricious. Entities in Nature are interdependent and rely on one another, dominated by cosmic and natural forces beyond one’s understanding. And so, a sense of underlying harmony was understood to prevail.’ This project looks at the cultural relationship in China and Beijing with nature in its various guises, not only ecological but also in the culture of Beijing and explores how people wish to live their lives; specifically how to bring joy to people’s lives either through the being connected to nature, or with their own kin. Architecturally, I have been exploring spatial thresholds of the typology of the courtyard and equally, the roof. This is a proposal to return to an historic way of living as an inter-generational family, and exploring how this way of living in China might be updated for the future to live more closely with nature.