As the former site of a Kuomintang officers’ club in the 1920s, Nanjing Greentown Tao Hua Yuan is located in Tangshan Tourist Area of Jiangning District, Nanjing.

In its overall planning design, the design team takes “urban mountainous forest” as its vision, and wishes to perfectly integrate urban residential life and natural environment in this project. The term “urban mountainous forest” can be traced back to The Art of Gardening written by Ji Cheng from the Ming Dynasty. In traditional architectural studies, this term always referred to the place-making concept advocated by traditional Chinese scholars in an attempt to experience a “mind travel” of “true mountains and waters” in urban residences. Today, it has broader meanings and a stronger power.

In fact, gardens constitute an urban architectural pattern that is related to the sustainable development concept prevailing today, embodying the traditional values created by Chinese local architectures. In the specific place-making process of this project, the design wishes to create a harmonious life pattern via various relations among people, architectures and nature.

In the design concept, the project follows the concept of “let nature take its course” in “urban mountainous forest”, emphasizing natural protection over architectural construction. It aims to reduce natural destruction to the minimum. As for architectural structure, the architect employs traditional Suzhou-style practices in carpentry, tilework and stonework, and redesigns other decorative details in a restrained manner, giving equal consideration to both artistic conception and operational skills. During this process, the cooperation with domestic high-level landscape, interior decoration and construction units has given the project more delicacies; the whole-process monitoring by the place-making management team of Greentown has eventually injected a soul into this project. After a five-year polishing, the project ultimately presents a cultural landscape of “natural life in urban residence”.