TAO Sinks a Stone-Walled Visitor Center into an Abandoned Gas Station Site in Rural Yunnan

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This article covers topics related to Office Building, Architecture, Passive Architecture, Natural Architecture, Building Design, Chinese Small Scale Architecture. In Bawan Village, Baoshan, a 244 m² concrete-and-stone visitor center steps down a roadside slope, trading object for terrace and shadow.

In Bawan Village, Baoshan, a 244 m² concrete-and-stone visitor center steps down a roadside slope, trading object for terrace and shadow.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Office Building, Architecture on Oct 10, 2026

Most rural visitor centers in China arrive as objects: a pavilion with a signature roof, placed where tour buses can see it. TAO (Trace Architecture Office), led by Hua Li, took the opposite route in Bawan Village. The site was an abandoned gas station on a roadside parcel at the western edge of the Lujiangba Basin, where the southern slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains fold into terraced fields, orchards and stone houses. On that leftover plot, TAO built 244 m² of reinforced concrete that reads less like a building and more like a piece of retaining landscape.

What interests us is the restraint. The structure is concrete, but it is finished to carry the tactile weight of the region's stone-building tradition. There are no decorative finishes to fall back on, so texture, mass and shadow have to do all the work. Inside, the plan alternates between compressed and released spaces, which TAO compares to a mountain settlement where narrow passages suddenly open onto terraces and views. The result is a small civic building that serves tourism without performing for it.

A Gas Station Lot Rebuilt as Terrain

Aerial view of stepped rubble stone walls and rooftop terraces beside a road, with a large tree and palms nearby

Aerial view of terraced rubble stone walls with a ramp, dark glazed doors and a leafy tree in afternoon sun

Close aerial view of angled rubble stone walls, glazed openings and a timber deck casting long shadows in low sun

Top-down view of stepped stone-edged terraces with a timber deck and a large tree canopy beside a brick-red path

This photograph displays an earth-integrated building embedded into a sloping hillside, constructed from textured light-colored stone masonry. Terraced monolith

From above, you can see the strategy at once. The triangular plot, squeezed between two roads, becomes a set of stepped rubble walls, ramps and rooftop terraces. A large existing tree anchors one corner, and a timber deck catches long afternoon shadows across the top. Nothing rises far above street level. The building's roof is public ground.

This is the right answer for a former gas station. Such sites are usually treated as scars to cover up, but TAO uses the awkward geometry and the level change as raw material. The volume is pushed into the slope, so the visitor center reads as one more terrace in a valley already made of terraces.

Stone Walls at the Roadside

Curving stone retaining wall with a planted slope and stone steps beside a road, with hazy mountains behind in afternoon sun

Close view of dry-laid stone walls and a concrete ramp, with yellow flowers in the foreground and a hillside beyond

This photograph captures a stepped outdoor circulation area in a hillside settlement, framed by prominent textured stone retaining walls. Clean-lined concrete s

Stone retaining walls and a narrow staircase stepping up toward a hillside building, with mature trees in soft haze

At street level, the project shows itself mainly as a wall. A curving retaining edge with a planted slope meets the road, and stone steps and a concrete ramp cut through it. The masonry looks dry-laid and irregular, closer to the field walls on the hillside than to the cladding of a typical tourism building.

The pairing of rough stone with clean concrete surfaces for ramps and stairs is a useful discipline. The stone carries the memory of place; the concrete carries movement. You always know where to walk, and you always know where you are.

Inside the Compression

Interior stair with black steel railing between board-marked concrete soffits and rough stone walls, with daylight from a skylight above

Stone wall lit from above behind a black steel railing and a concrete stair descending below a board-formed ceiling

This interior photograph captures a multi-level circulation space defined by a rich contrast of tactile textures, featuring grooved, board-formed concrete and r

The interiors are where the settlement analogy becomes physical. Stairs slip between board-marked concrete soffits and rough stone walls, and black steel railings are the only applied element in view. Daylight arrives from skylights and placed openings above, washing down the masonry rather than flooding the room.

TAO describes the openings as letting light into enclosed spaces while limiting exposure to the outside. That matters in a building this small. By keeping views controlled inside, the architects save the landscape for the moment you climb out onto a terrace, and the compression makes that release feel earned.

Terraces and the Tree

Terrace with a large spreading tree, stone benches, a shallow water channel and timber steps under a clear sky

This elevated outdoor terrace features integrated stone masonry retaining walls and tiered pathways that gracefully negotiate the hillside topography. In the ba

Paved terrace with low stone seating walls and a mature tree, looking toward village houses and terraced mountains under overcast sky

The upper levels are designed for lingering. A spreading tree shades a paved terrace with stone benches, a shallow water channel and timber steps. Low seating walls double as edges, so the furniture and the architecture are the same thing.

Keeping the tree was more than a gesture. It gives the roof a canopy the concrete could never provide, and it ties the new terraces to the orchards beyond. For a village building, a shaded place to sit may be the most useful program of all.

Reading the Valley

An expansive outdoor stone terrace and observation deck overlooks a valley settlement nestled against dramatic mountain peaks. Built using textured ashlar and r

Village houses and terraced orchards on a mountain slope under a blue sky with scattered cumulus clouds

Street view of an arched upper storey above a stacked stone retaining wall, with two detail photos of the masonry and a worker

The observation terrace frames the village settled against the mountains, with terraced orchards climbing behind. TAO's documentation of local stacked-stone retaining walls and the masons who build them shows where the project's vocabulary comes from. This is vernacular knowledge studied up close, not borrowed as an image.

The design does not copy village houses. It takes the logic of the terraced slope, its walls, steps and flat platforms, and turns it into public space. That is a more durable way to preserve tradition than reproducing roof profiles.

Working Through Models

Dark site model of a town block on a plinth, with the small stepped structure picked out in white beside a road

Aerial view of a site model showing a small pale volume wedged beside a curving road among dense grey building blocks

Site model view of a stepped terrace with stairs and bare trees, set between a terraced block and an arcaded building

Block model of a sloping site with a stepped concrete terrace, stairs and leafless trees on a black ground

Side elevation of the terrain model showing a stair and dark doorway cut into the slope beneath bare trees

Raised model on a black stand showing concrete retaining walls, a timber deck and stairs among leafless trees

Frontal view of the model with concrete walls, a dark opening and two bare trees on a textured hillside

Aerial view of a physical site model with two cut terrain blocks, bare tree sculptures and stepped concrete volumes carved into the slope

Top-down view of the model's terraced stairs and rough concrete walls, with a bare tree casting long shadows on small figures

Interior of the model showing a rough aggregate wall beside a short flight of steps, with light slipping in from a side slot

Low view down a model corridor with a pitted concrete block on the right and a lone figure lit at the far end

Model detail of a floating concrete stair beside a porous stone wall, with a standing figure and leafy branches overhead

Model interior with two white figures in a dim concrete room, daylight entering through a framed opening and a side light well

Model interior of a rough concrete stair beside a pitted wall, with a sharp shaft of sunlight cutting across the floor

Site model showing a sunken stair court and small figures below bare branching trees, lit hard against a black background

Top-down view of a site model with timber-roofed volumes, a concrete courtyard and bare twig trees on a textured ground

The physical models reveal how the project was really designed. Site models place the small pale volume among dense town blocks along the curving road. Terrain models carve stepped volumes into the slope under bare twig trees. Interior models test pitted walls, floating stairs and shafts of sunlight cutting across dim rooms.

The interior studies are especially telling. Their focus is on light slots, wall textures and the scale of a lone figure in a corridor, not on furniture or signage. The atmosphere was worked out at model scale before construction, and the finished photographs track those studies closely.

Plans and Drawings

Regional map drawing in grey and white showing road networks, a province boundary and a red marked site linked to nearby towns by thin lines

Black and white aerial site map of a hillside village with terraced fields, a reservoir and a highlighted road in white

Master plan drawing showing a small triangular building at a road junction among village buildings and scattered trees

Ground floor plan drawing showing an entrance hall, exhibition spaces and washrooms beside a stepped triangular forecourt along the road

Second floor plan drawing showing a gift shop and terrace with a stair running up the sloped site beside a tree

Roof plan drawing showing a triangular terrace with timber decking, a sloped stair and two large tree canopies

Section A-A drawing cutting through a slope, showing a small buried pavilion beside a large tree with exposed roots and a passing car

Section B-B drawing showing a stone-walled entrance hall set into the hillside, with a stair climbing past a bare tree to a terrace

Section C-C drawing of the entrance hall and gift shop stacked below a rooftop terrace, with a large canopy tree and a parked car

Section D-D drawing showing entrance hall, washroom and gift shop volumes beneath a stepped stone stair and a spreading tree

Cutaway perspective drawing of the stone-clad partly buried building with a rooftop terrace, tables and palms in front of a terraced apartment block

North elevation drawing of a long rubble stone wall with a glazed double door, palms and trees behind and cars on the road

West elevation drawing of a stone-clad stepped structure on a sloping street, with a large tree, a palm and parked cars beside it

East elevation drawing showing the stone terraces climbing a hillside slope beneath a spreading tree, with a palm and a car at the upper road

Aerial axonometric drawing of a triangular stone-walled site with stairs and a large tree, between two roads and a row of palms

Vertical aerial axonometric drawing of the narrow stepped site along a curving road, with a pickup truck and a row of palms nearby

Isometric diagram in white with red circulation paths tracing stairs and terraces through the stepped volumes, beside tall trees and a housing block

Axonometric line drawing of block volumes on contour lines, beside a black-and-white photo of a vacant sloped lot with trees

Colored pencil sketch of a terraced sunken plaza with ramps, two trees and a car passing on the street in front

The plans make the program clear. On the ground floor, an entrance hall, exhibition spaces and washrooms sit beside a stepped triangular forecourt along the road. On the second floor, a gift shop opens onto a terrace, and a stair climbs the slope beside the tree. The roof becomes a timber-decked triangle under two large canopies.

The sections are the most revealing drawings. They show a pavilion partly buried in the hillside, with exposed tree roots, stacked rooms and stairs that move both inside and outside. The red circulation diagram confirms that the building works as a route as much as a container. The early sketch of a sunken plaza with ramps shows the idea was clear from the first drawing.

Why This Project Matters

Rural tourism in China has produced many visitor centers that look borrowed from somewhere else. Bawan shows another approach: at 244 m² on a contaminated-feeling roadside leftover, a building can repair the ground first and offer program second. Its roof is a public terrace, its walls are retaining walls, and its interiors are a short lesson in how the valley is built.

We would like more data on its climate performance, and only time will tell how the concrete and stone weather. But the core move is convincing. By choosing texture over finish, and sequence over spectacle, TAO has made a civic landmark that does not need to shout. In a landscape this strong, that is the correct level of ambition.

Bawan Village Visitor Center by TAO (Trace Architecture Office). Location: Bawan Village, Lujiangba, Baoshan, Yunnan, China. Area: 244 m². Year: 2026. Photography: Yumeng Zhu, DONG Image, HUA LI.

About the Studio

TAO (Trace Architecture Office)

Official website of TAO (Trace Architecture Office), one of the studios behind this project.

t-a-o.cn

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