Suixian: Rural Infrastructure as Landscape Architecture

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This article covers topics related to Architecture. Qing Studio transformed an irrigation reservoir and a fire lookout tower in rural China into public spaces without destroying what they are.

Qing Studio transformed an irrigation reservoir and a fire lookout tower in rural China into public spaces without destroying what they are.

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UNI Editorial published Story under Architecture on Jan 3, 2025

Suixian County sits in the hills of Hubei Province, in central China. The landscape is terraced tea-oil gardens, irrigation reservoirs, transmission towers, and fire lookouts: the infrastructure of a working agricultural region. None of it was designed to be looked at. Qing Studio looked at it anyway, and saw architecture.

The Suixian Agricultural Infrastructure Renovation transforms two existing pieces of rural infrastructure, an irrigation reservoir and a fire lookout tower, into public spaces without destroying what they are. The reservoir still holds water. The tower still watches for fire. But now people gather at both. The project is a model for how architecture can intervene in landscape without replacing it.

The Landscape: Tea-Oil Terraces and Fog

Dawn aerial: the membrane-wrapped tower rising from morning fog over the terraced tea-oil hillside

Tower emerging from low cloud: the white membrane form visible above the mist, terraced slopes below

Dusk aerial: both interventions visible across the terraced hills, the reservoir structure and distant tower connected by landscape

The photographs by Yilong Zhao are extraordinary. The terraced hills, the morning fog, the transmission towers disappearing into cloud: this is a landscape that operates at a scale most architecture never reaches. The interventions appear as white objects on distant hilltops, visible for kilometres but never dominant. They are landmarks, not monuments.

This sense of scale is the project's greatest achievement. The architecture does not compete with the landscape. It punctuates it.

The Irrigation Reservoir: Bringing the Sky to Earth

Aerial view of the reservoir intervention: circular water basin, triangular mirrored staircase, and walkway extending to centre

Reservoir at sunset: the steel arch ring, walkway, and circular basin against layered mountains and transmission tower

Reservoir approach at dusk: the triangular staircase leading up to the circular basin, arch framing the sky

The irrigation reservoir is a circular concrete basin on a hilltop. Qing Studio added three elements: a triangular staircase with mirror-polished stainless steel risers descending to the water; a walkway extending from the rim to the centre of the basin; and a steel arch ring that frames the sky from the water's surface.

The mirrored stair risers create an illusion of cascading water, reflecting the sky and the surrounding hills as you descend. At the centre of the walkway, your eye level aligns with the water surface. The reservoir becomes a lens: the landscape is reflected, inverted, and doubled. It is a piece of land art that happens to still be a functioning irrigation basin.

Walkway on the reservoir: figure walking across the mirrored staircase toward the water, steel arch overhead

Detail: translucent membrane and steel arch ring over the reservoir water, blue twilight, mist rising

Dawn aerial: the reservoir structure emerging from fog, the walkway and arch catching early light

The Fire Lookout Tower: From Isolation to Community

Fire lookout tower at ground level: white membrane canopy, steel frame, curved concrete seating, tea farmers drying harvest

Fire lookout tower at night: illuminated membrane canopy glowing white, steel frame silhouette, curved seating below

Curved concrete amphitheatre seating beneath the membrane canopy, terraced hills and hazy mountains beyond

The existing fire lookout is a steel lattice tower on a hilltop, the kind of utilitarian structure found across rural China. Qing Studio wrapped it in a semi-transparent Ferrari membrane supported by a cantilevered steel pipe frame, creating a white conical form that reads from a distance as a beacon.

At the base, a curved concrete amphitheatre and a paved plaza provide seating and gathering space for the tea farmers who work the surrounding terraces. The tower was always a point on the horizon. Now it is a place. Farmers dry their harvest on the plaza, sit in the amphitheatre, and use the tower as a landmark and a meeting point.

Tea farmers sorting harvest in morning fog, the lit tower rising behind them on the hilltop plaza

Tower at blue hour: the glowing white form seen from kilometres away, a beacon on the dark hilltop

Two Interventions, One Landscape

Dawn aerial (repeated): membrane tower on its hilltop emerging from mist, terraces visible below

Reservoir from distance: the circular form and arch sitting among tea-oil terraces at golden hour

The reservoir and the tower are kilometres apart, visible to each other across the terraced hills. Seen together in the aerial photographs, they form a pair: two white marks on a green landscape, connected not by a path but by a sightline. This is landscape architecture at the territorial scale. The project is not about two buildings. It is about the space between them.

Drawings

Section drawing of reservoir: steel pipe structure, mirrored stair risers, Ferrari membrane, walkway, and circular basin (Chinese annotations)

Plan drawing of reservoir: circular basin, triangular walkway extending from the ring, steel pipe dimensions

Elevation drawing of fire lookout tower: existing steel lattice tower wrapped in membrane canopy, steel pipe frame, curved seating platform

The drawings show the structural logic. The reservoir intervention uses steel pipe arches (120mm, 160mm, 300mm diameters), a Ferrari membrane, and reinforced concrete stairs clad in mirror-finish stainless steel. The tower wraps the existing lattice structure in a membrane canopy supported by a new steel frame at the base.

Section drawing of tower base: membrane canopy, steel frame, stair access to existing tower, concrete platform

Plan drawing of tower: circular membrane footprint around the existing tower, curved amphitheatre seating, concrete steps

Site map: locations of the reservoir and tower interventions within the broader Suixian agricultural landscape

Why This Project Matters

Rural infrastructure is invisible to most architects. It is designed by engineers, built by contractors, and maintained by farmers. It is functional, durable, and culturally significant, but it is never treated as architecture. Qing Studio's Suixian renovation proves that the boundary between infrastructure and architecture is imaginary. A reservoir can be a contemplation pool. A fire tower can be a community centre. The transformation requires very little material but a great deal of attention.

If you are interested in landscape architecture, rural design, or infrastructure as public space, this is one of the most poetic recent examples.

About the Studio

Qing Studio

Chinese architecture studio working across landscape, infrastructure, and cultural projects in rural China.

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