DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
SMC : The main principle is to re-connect people with environment which accommodates the production of food. The masterplan concept is to maximize the use of the existing landscape and minimize impact to the environment. The site gives us the biggest hint as to what to do, how to define different zoning and where to locate building footprint.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
SMC : The main focus is to create a place where new generations of urban family in China can re-connect with their natural and rural environment. The rapid urbanization in China has destroyed many existing natural environment and farmlands. The chinese people needs to understand the value of the environment to all livings things and their own lives.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
SMC : I am hoping this award can help promote the concept of agriturismo (agritourism) in China and promote China rural tourism to the world. I am also hoping this award can help the client push forward the project with the local government.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
SMC : The concept of the masterplan took just few days to come up with. However, we spend more than a week to understanding the projects and understand the site.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
SMC : The concept brings emphasis on the actual worth of the existing aquaculture farm and how it brings highest value to to the project.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
SMC : The construction stage for this project is yet to begins, however if it proceeds in construction, it will most likely be completed by a local contractor company.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
SMC : I really enjoy working on projects which deals the existing landscape and existing vegetation. I love thinking how people may interact with nature and the landscape.
DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
SMC : The concept of 'touch the earth lightly' came from Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt. I feel like I am trying export the values and mentality towards the natural environment from Australia into China.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
SMC : Glen Murcutt spend his life time working on smaller projects with a strong focus on creating economical and energy-conserving architecture.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
SMC : The design is a fusion of oriental and environmentalist ideas. The Chinese ideas of borrowing picturesque via framing a part of landscape outside of the house in the background and using an artificially created garden in the background. The western culture refers to this type of garden as "Japanese Garden", however the idea originates from the chinese people. Only this time for this particular project, we retain the existing landscape to create a natural picturesque.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
SMC : Aquaculture is the cultivation of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae, and other organisms. Agritourismo or agritourism is about bringing visitors and tourists into any agricultural operations. The concept of rural tourism has first originated from Italy in the 1960s.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
SMC : We started off sketching out ideas on tracing paper and studied the existing site off google earth aerial photos. Then we tested out ideas on plan in AutoCAD and Sketchup. We used the Adobe Suite such as Photoshop, Illustrator and indesign for the presentation work.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
SMC : The most unique aspect of the project is that both our design team and the client shared the same vision of retaining most of the existing landscape. This is mostly a rare case, because most clients from China wanted something extraordinary and very bold.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
SMC : I collaborated with Bao Yupeng, he is an urban designer with very strong rationality and deep understanding of the chinese culture.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
SMC : In terms of the masterplan concept design, technology only played a role for us as a design tool. We were discussing about prefabricated houses for the implementation of project, however the project has not progress to that particular stage yet. We even thought about placing an EV charging station for visitors planning to visit driving on a Tesla.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
SMC : We did an analysis of the surrounding context at a regional planning level to understand the project position in a macro scale. Then we did a micro analysis of the site to get a stronger feeling in regards to its immediate surrounding environment.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
SMC : One of the main challenges we faced was we couldn't decide on the degree of alteration to the existing aquaculture farm without damaging the existing habitat and the ongoing operations of the farm. Our main concern was the impact of private vehicles have on the site.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
SMC : We were always looking for opportunities to ourselves as designers in the industry, submitting to an international design competition is one of the ideas we had in mind. The other reason is we hope this design award could help the client promote the project smoothly with the local government, since I heard they were experience hiccups in the negotiation process.
