Close to the southern city of Liuzhou, bordering on an impressive karstic landscape classified as a world heritage site, lies a limestone quarry that, after years of exploitation, has revealed the remarkable beauty of the interior of five mountains, dramatically altered to favor extraction. The proximity of the city and the growth of China’s middle class has encouraged developers to embark on a joint landscape and housing venture which tries at once to regenerate the landscape and to stop the erosion of the naked mountainside. The solution to this situation requires covering the slope with houses which help to prevent erosion (without obscuring the continuity of the park’s landscape), dwellings with good views and ventilation and which, finally, constitute a scultpural relief apparently carved into the rocks.

The floor plans follow the terrain’s natural topography and absorb its unevenness with terraces. To blend the houses into the hillside surface, the walls of the dwellings are built with stone that comes from the quarry. Between the platforms of the dwellings – supported off by pillars – and the rocks, a three meter thick space ensures a proper ventilation... [+]