Delirious Guilin

Guilin is one of the most famous tourist cities in China for its iconic landscape. Referenced in literature and art, Guilin holds its reputation as an ‘imaginary landscape’.

In contrast with the cultural imagination, the city grows in a complex and delirious way around the rivers and mountains. The areas for tourism are intentionally separated from the local residential area through its formal qualities. In such an urban environment, the life of local residents is very different from that of Guilin in the imagination of poetry and painting. The separation between tourists and residents leads to a delirious city context.

The brand of ‘travel’ is like a cage that limits urban development. Local governments are keen to maximize the urban performance of the tourism industry and neglect the needs of citizens.

This project aims to create a city microcosm that embedded a more authentic idea of the place while integrating the stereotypical elements of the ‘Landscape-Image’ of Guilin, and the formal qualities of the tourism architecture. It is both a critique of the established city context and a vision of the city of Guilin.