The World Geopark “Xingwen Stone Sea” is located in Xingwen County, Yibin City, on the southern edge of the Sichuan Basin. Surrounded by stunning mountains and clear waters, it sits at the crossroads of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces. The area boasts numerous peaks and extensive karst caves.
Xingwen is historically significant as the ancient home of the Bo people, who thrived and eventually disappeared here. It is also the largest Miao ethnic settlement in Sichuan Province. The natural landscape culture of Shihai and the Bo Miao ethnic culture complement each other, creating a unique world-class tourist destination.
The “Xingwen Stone Sea” World Class Tourist Destination Visitor Center is centrally located in Xingwen County, adjacent to the Xingwen High-Speed Railway Passenger Station and the Xingwen Automobile Passenger Transport Center. As a landmark cultural and tourism building, it serves as the gateway to the city, bridging urban life with nature, culture, and environment. This center aims to boost tourism services and cultural exhibitions related to the Xingwen Stone Sea.
Our goal is to create a unique and captivating urban tourist center by focusing on three critical dimensions: urban space, regional characteristics, and ethnic cultural expression.
Unlike tourist centers located within scenic areas, urban cultural and tourism buildings like this one must integrate distinct cultural and tourism features with the unique characteristics of the city. The design not only highlights the building as a cultural landmark but also ensures a seamless connection with the surrounding urban space.
The challenge is to express the unique cultural and tourism identity while respecting the constraints posed by the surrounding urban spatial relationships.
Although the square-shaped land offers apparent freedom for design, the surrounding city’s rational spatial order and dense urban fabric are already well established. Our approach is to create a calm and clear dialogue with the urban environment, allowing the architectural and urban spaces to integrate organically. This will foster a complete, harmonious, and vibrant public space within the city.
At the same time, the design subtly expresses the individuality of cultural and tourism architecture along with the cultural essence and unique appeal of the “Xingwen Stone Sea” scenic area.
The building’s peaceful and coherent form aligns with the overall urban design framework. Its organic, staggered spatial composition matches the scale of nearby structures, enhancing the liveliness and cohesion of the urban spatial form.
While engaging deeply with the surrounding urban context, the design abstracts natural landscape elements, creating a sense of order that extends horizontally and ascends vertically in a staggered pattern. This reflects the layered mountains and rocky peaks that characterize Xingwen’s natural scenery.
The resulting architectural form is flat, complete, and staggered with clear, defined lines. The gray space at the building’s southern entrance connects seamlessly with the core urban public landscape and the tourist service hall, blending indoor and outdoor areas and emphasizing the building’s public nature.
Functionally, the tourism service complex includes areas for consultation, cultural display, transportation transfer, service support, and tourist reception. The design encourages flexible, expandable spaces that allow each function to operate independently while facilitating easy connections between them.
In designing for regional characteristics and emotional resonance, we considered three dimensions: scenic spot features, natural elements, and cultural aspects. Our aim is to convey the cultural significance and landmark qualities that this cultural tourism architecture should embody within the urban context.
Respecting the urban interface’s integrity, we sought to create an urban tourist center deeply rooted in southern Sichuan’s identity, infused with regional characteristics, emotional depth, and distinctive tourism architectural features.
Drawing inspiration from the iconic natural landscape culture of Xingwen Shihai and the complementary Bo Miao ethnic culture, we developed the overarching concept of “Shihai Huange”.
This includes capturing the scenic imagery of “dancing stones” and their natural symbolism, combined with the local dragon-patterned stone texture that highlights the dynamic charm of mountain rocks.
Inspired by Miao ethnic costumes, the design subtly interprets the imagery and emotional tones of “dancing costumes”. As a historical record for the Miao people, the intricate decorative symbols carry deep cultural meaning.
We abstracted these decorative patterns using contemporary design language, utilizing triangular motifs to symbolize the cultural imagery of “dressing up and dancing”. The building’s triangular architectural skin, with fractal divisions, resembles embroidered skirt patterns. The strong contrast of form and color emphasizes the primal, passionate spirit of the Miao ethnic group, evoking vivid regional memories and embodying the humanistic character of the Xingwen Stone Sea Tourist Center.
This urban cultural and tourism building, rich in regional character, is designed to harmonize with the cityscape. It aims to enhance the overall spatial appeal and cultural depth of Xingwen County, serving as a shared emotional and memorable landmark for both visitors and local residents.
Project Information
Architectural Design: Gu Zhihong Studio, Tianjin University Design Institute
Area: 58,000 m²
Project Year: 2022
Photographer: Wei Gang
Principal Architect: Gu Zhihong
Design Team: Gu Zhihong, Liang Weijia, Mu Yi, Liu Jiarui, Bian Zhe, Wang Xun, Lu Jiajia
Construction Drawing Design Leaders: Bai Xinyu, Wang Lei
Construction Drawings: Wang Jiangfei, Zhang Xiaodi, Li Xiaolei, Xu Ting
Structural Construction Drawings: Meng Xiangliang, Sun Qiao, Li Jianjun, Deng Xue, Guo Yueyang
Water Supply and Drainage Drawings: Wang Pincai, Zhang Zhiwen, Chen Xilin
HVAC Drawings: Yang Chengbin, Jin Wei, Xie Yufan, Lu Yi
Electrical Drawings: Yang Tingwu, Ding Wei, Wang Xiao, Zhang Mengdi
Client: Sichuan Xingwen Shihai Tianxia Qi Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd
Location: Yibin, China
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