A new landscape where local memory meets modern language
In Yishala village, Panzhihua, Sichuan, China, courtyard houses cluster their roofs together along terraced stone fields and winding mountain ridges. Sunlight slips between the rooftops, casting shifting shadows across the alleys that bind the houses. Adapted to the rugged landscape, the homes seem to merge with nature. The observatory echoes this village scene. Four volumes rest on the mountain slope, their staggered arrangement linked by stairs, corridors, and bridges—a translation of the land‘s dynamism into the language of modern architecture. At once rooted in the surrounding ecology and firmly layered into the ground, the form reflects the spirit of its setting.
The red concrete rises as If from the earth, rough and raw. Limited conditions made refined finishes impossible, but this roughness reinforces its natural character. Subtle shifts in tone, uneven joints, and small imperfections remain not as flaws but as marks of origin. The concrete wall becomes a canvas for light: irregular rooflines and angled walls cast geometric shadows across the façade, while bands of light cut through gaps to trace shifting forms on walls and floors. Most public spaces of the observatory are semi-interior, open not through windows but through simple, irregular apertures. The east-facing wall of the multipurpose hall opens in full height, while small round holes pierce the thick concrete walls. Each morning, sunlight falling over Yishala streams through these holes, scattering bright points across the red walls—a daylight constellation.
The observatory Is deeply anchored in the terrain and material context. Its raw textures and irregular shadows mirror the village’s rhythm and the light of nature, resonating with the landscape that has always been there. As light pours down between the mountains and valleys, the concrete deepens into the color of the earth. In this way, the observatory inhabits the time of nature, shaping a new landscape where local memory meets the language of modern architecture.
Project: Red Village Observatory / Location: Yishala, Panzhihua, Sichuan, China / Architect: TAG / Lead architects: Wang Yanze, Wu Guanzhong / Design team: Bai Siyang, Yu Yichen, Xin Yuxi / Collaborators: Xuhui Architecture and Urban Planning Design Institute / Client: Renhe Development Company / Gross built area: 1,350m² / Completion: 2023-04 / Photograph: ©Liu Songkai (courtesy of the architect), ©Trace image (courtesy of the architect), ©Chen Yang (courtesy of the architect), ©Wu Guanzhong (courtesy of the architect)
