"Celestial boulders" of woven bamboo shade eco-farm in China
Boulder-shaped canopies of woven bamboo shelter the spaces of LuxeIsland Farm, an eco-farm in China designed by Various Associates.
Located along the Zhujia River in the Jiang'an District, the animal farm sits at the heart of a vast, 230,000-square-metre development named LuxeOasis that was initiated by Luxelakes Cultural Tourism to combine art, nature and cultural tourism.
Connected by a meandering path and gardens, the farm's several buildings contain retail, dining and workshop spaces alongside pens for animals including deer, alpacas and goats.
It was the climbing abilities of goats that originally led Various Associates to look at the idea of a boulder, arriving at the organic form used for a series of woven canopies that shelter LuxeIsland Farm's outdoor seating spaces.
"Studying the habits of goats, we discovered that mountain goats are adept climbers, nimbly traversing seemingly inaccessible terrain," lead designers Lin Qianyi and Yang Dongzi told Dezeen.
"This inspired our concept: architectural forms resembling celestial boulders are freely scattered across the valley, with bamboo-weave roofs appearing to grow naturally from the hilly pastures."
"Our team's first consensus was 'no wooden houses.' Traditional wooden house building forms serve humans, whereas we wanted the architectural forms to serve nature, the environment, and the animals," they added.
At the farm's entrance, a doughnut shop is topped by a metal-clad "spaceship" roof that forms a stark contrast to the rest of the farm buildings. It was designed to act as an orienting landmark and gathering point for visitors.
A feed house, cafe, workshop and toilets are all housed within curved volumes finished in a pale, textured render. These structures line the farm's meandering pathways, which expand to form seating areas alongside curved areas of planting.
Extending from the roof of each of these buildings is a boulder-shaped woven bamboo canopy, with varying sizes supported at their opposite ends by imitation standing stones.
In the largest canopy above the farm's workshop space, triangular openings were introduced and the lower section of the boulder cut away to create a dome-like form.
Many of the open plazas were required to accommodate a flexible variety of commercial and cultural activities, and so Various Associates incorporated areas of hay bale seating, stone boulders and timber platforms that can become impromptu stages.
"We wanted to use local materials, with a primal texture and handcrafted methods, to restore a sense of rustic simplicity reminiscent of the wild," Qianyi and Dongzi said.
"The bamboo structure above the central workshop is the largest span, specifically designed as a hemisphere with the lower part omitted to enhance a lightweight, breathable feeling."
'The designers incorporated triangular openings within the top weaving. When sunlight filters through these voids, it casts larger triangular spots of light amidst the finer points, which small animals sometimes chase around," they added.
The four animal enclosures, two positioned to the north and two to the south, have been dug into low hills in the landscape and are topped with green roofs, with the pens themselves accessed through circular timber doors.
Elsewhere in China, architecture studio Xisui Design recently completed a playground in Shandong province incorporating large, 3D printed boulders.
As part of our review of 2025, we have also rounded up the top 10 Chinese buildings of 2025.
The photography is by SFAP.
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