Daniel Hudson, a director at Jackson Teece (pictured below), told World Architecture News how Taikang Community Xiang Garden, a 2023 winner in the Healthcare category of the WAN Awards, draws inspiration from the local landscape and architectural vernacular to establish a sense of place and cultural connection.
How did Jackson Teece’s involvement in this project come about?
This was a really interesting project for a very large insurance provider in China. Taikang Healthcare intends to develop a flagship community within each major city in China and are leaders in the sector within China. The group travelled the world in 2016 to put together a panel of architects to take part in design competitions for each of their projects which is how our involvement came about. We have been at the forefront of the Seniors Living and Care sector in Australia for over twenty years and are now also working for a select group of clients in China and Japan.
What were the standout challenges?
The design competition for this project took place back in 2017 when this typology, at this scale, was still in its infancy. Like most developed countries, China has an ageing population which is further exacerbated by the past one child policy, essentially resulting in a tidal wave of demand for accommodation and care facilities. The financial burden of the ageing population on the family unit is increasing due to the still relatively low retirement age in China where there is currently a transition to a world where there could conceivably be two generations of retired people within each family unit.
This was also our first major project in China so we were adjusting to a new context from both a design context and a business perspective. It was an opportunity as much as a challenge to take our client on a journey with us exploring a new community based design direction. We always approach the design of communities from a residential rather than an institutional perspective to make them more appealing places to live. We focus on community creation and the provision of enhanced facilities, our goal is to offer residents a place to live which offers an attractive and active lifestyle.
What aspects of the project are you most proud of?
We wanted to challenge the norm in China where it seems every building is aligned with a southern aspect creating a very utilitarian style masterplan.
We really challenged that concept. Our buildings are arranged in a more organic way to create community spaces between the buildings. We’re working in the negative spaces, creating green space as the focus of each sub community within the masterplan.
The big “folded roof” form connects the collection of main clubhouse buildings which circle the central plaza, activating the heart of the community. It’s a mechanism to draw people into and around the site
The scale of the site is too large to achieve an intimate sense of community without breaking it down into smaller spaces. We really challenged the norm in China and we’re really proud we were able to convince the client to go down that path. I think that, along with the “relaxed” arrangement of the masterplan is what won us the competition in the end.
The project’s design draws inspiration from the local landscape and architectural vernacular, establishing a sense of place and cultural connection. Could you tell us a bit more about this?
We wanted to draw on the natural environment in our design. The clubhouse, central plaza and connecting walkways feature organically arranged timber colour columns which reference the local Yuelu Mountain forest.
The azalea flower is the city flower of Changsha and we also incorporated that into the landscape design. It was important to include these little cultural connections that an elderly resident might appreciate.
Our choice of building materials also provides a cultural connection. I’ve always loved the grey clay bricks used in China. They’re a very tactile, very warm natural material. It was important that the building should feel grounded in its context. We also used tile roofs rather than sheet roofing for the clubhouse. This was important as many of the residents’ apartments look down over the club house, we treated this as a fifth elevation
What are the benefits to winning WAN Award?
A WAN Award certainly helps with international exposure and we enjoy the process of entering the award. It leads you to view your own work form an international perspective. I think it’s really important to be able to take that broader view design and place making
What are you working on next?
We have a lot of varied work going on in Japan at the moment, from residential projects to public and commercial projects. We’re also doing some exciting master planning work in China. Closer to home we’re working on large-scale mixed-use developments in Sydney and Brisbane which focus on community creation, many of which contain large scale build to rent schemes (a new concept in Australia) in some of the key suburbs, aswell as luxury apartments, social housing, seniors living and aged care. A diverse cross section of occupants and uses in these large scale developments leads to a rich and varied community.