Starting from Yibin, tucked away in Meilinhua Creek, Jingping Village, Dacheng Town, Pingshan County, lies a vast rose industry park. The first structure visible at the entrance parking lot of Meilinhuaxi Park is a brown public restroom. This facility not only fulfills the basic functions of a restroom but also serves as a public service space within the park.
The building is situated in a concave area with a mountain backdrop, overlooking the parking lot and flower fields, offering expansive views. The site preserves two large trees that conceal the mountain wall, providing excellent privacy.
This brown restroom is nestled among lush green trees, blending seamlessly into the natural environment. The design consists of two levels, featuring four wooden functional square boxes symmetrically arranged along a central axis. On the first floor, rooms house processing equipment for accessible and family restrooms. The second floor contains separate male and female restrooms on the left and right sides. The floor plan arranges compartments around a central island, facilitating smooth pipeline layouts and offering diverse options for facade materials.
The layout of the two floors enhances visitor experience: the first floor provides resting areas, while the second floor offers panoramic views.
The staircase and accessible ramp are positioned on the mountain-facing side, while the passenger flow side offers excellent views. The sloped roof, supported by both steel and wooden structures, improves natural ventilation.
Beneath the roof, the remaining space is enclosed with brown tiles and furnished with seating, creating a resting area for visitors. In the courtyard’s gray space, tourists can relax while admiring rows of rose fields and the pastoral scenery of villagers’ crop rotation and cultivation.
The public spaces benefit from skylights, illuminating the interiors with natural light.
Sichuan’s mild, rainy climate and rich timber resources have influenced local architecture. Traditional residential buildings often feature perforated wooden frames and large, hanging mountain-style eaves, creating a light and agile aesthetic. The brown restroom draws inspiration from these traditional forms, making innovative structural and material choices.
The sloping roof’s sides are clad with color steel plates, chosen for their affordability, durability, practicality, and ease of construction, making them popular in rural projects. The roof’s center features transparent sunlight panels that bring light into the atrium during the day and illuminate the building at night.
Steel columns support the wooden roof structure, which employs fast-growing camphor pine. Given the wood’s high moisture content, the wooden frame is painted the same color as the steel columns and roof. This treatment prevents corrosion and visually unifies the structure. The combination of materials is harmonious and well-integrated.
In Southwestern China’s mountainous regions, palm tree leaf sheath fibers are prized for their elasticity, toughness, water and corrosion resistance, breathability, and insect resistance. For nearly a thousand years, locals have crafted raincoats and brown silk mattresses from these fibers. In this project, brown silk is woven into thicker brown boards, which are arranged on the steel frame in a gradient pattern—denser at the top and sparser at the bottom. This design preserves views for visitors while balancing privacy and openness.
The brown fiber board used as a building material offers toughness, wear resistance, dirt resistance, corrosion resistance, and moisture resistance — all essential qualities for restroom facilities. Its loose, multi-seam internal structure facilitates ventilation, reflecting the local rural building traditions.
As a key agricultural, cultural, and tourism project, Meilin Huaxi aims to strengthen Pingshan County’s identity as a “City of Roses” and a romantic capital. Serving as the park’s “opening statement,” the brown restroom harmonizes with its rural setting through its design, materials, and structure. It enhances restroom quality and comfort while inspiring local rural construction.
Project Drawings
Project Information
Project Name: Brown Toilet
Project Creator: Xinghang Architectural Design Firm
Design Team: Wen Qinhao, Li Chenggang, Zhou Ziyuan, Kong Xiaorui, Huang Wenhao
Construction Drawing Design: Shengdi International Architectural Engineering Design Co., Ltd.
Landscape Consultant: Yalai Chuangxiang YFED
Location: Jingping Village, Dacheng Town, Pingshan County
Construction Unit: Jingping Village Committee of Dacheng Town
General Contractor: Sichuan Lianghan Construction Engineering Co., Ltd.
Design Period: March 2022
Completion Date: August 2022
Building Area: 180 square meters
Main Materials: Brown fiber board (Woyuan Brown Fiber Technology Co., Ltd.), metal corrugated tiles, terrazzo, steel, camphor pine
Photographer: Lv Xiaobin
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