Quanzhou Ocean City
Program: 5,000 sqm Visitor Center, Restaurant, & Watchtower
Location: Quanzhou, China
Client: China Quanzhou Ocean City Tourism Development Co. LTD
The design of the Ocean City Visitor Center responds to its beautiful beachfront site by incorporating the fluid language of the ocean, integrating the built mass with the natural landscape, and providing privileged views of the pristine sand beach and the surrounding development of Ocean City. The fluid and dynamic lines created by these natural phenomenon will provide a visual connection between the project, the landscaping, the beach, and the South China Sea.
Rather than consider the visitor center, the tower, and the sculpture plaza as three distinctly separate structure each of them is viewed an articulated moment within a continuous field of flow which visually and literally connects the surrounding buildings, the beach, and the sea. These articulations are merged into a constant morphing, peeling, and blending of the natural topography to form landscape, boardwalk, building, plaza, stair, bridge, portal, and tower. This continuous experience blurs the boundary between skin/structure, and roof/wall/floor, and interior/exterior, and ultimately bridges the gap between the road, the beach, and the sea to create a unified and visionary entry experience to Ocean City.