Studio 10 has completed the Xue Village Community and Tourist Service Center, a groundbreaking architectural project that seamlessly integrates community services with tourist facilities in Henan Province, central China. The 2,500-square-meter facility, completed in 2024, represents an innovative approach to rural community development and sustainable tourism infrastructure.
Located on a triangular plot in Xue Village, Wangcun Town, Xingyang City, the service center occupies a strategically significant position near the middle route of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project. To the southwest, crystal-clear water diverted from the Danjiangkou Reservoir flows northward through an artificial channel, passing through a tunnel beneath the eastward-flowing Yellow River before emerging several kilometers to the north to continue its journey.
The project site benefits from its proximity to one of the region's most celebrated natural attractions. North of the service center, on the southern bank of the Yellow River, lies a renowned cherry blossom forest that serves as a famous viewing destination in the greater Zhengzhou area. Each spring, during the peak blooming season in April and May, thousands of visitors arrive from all directions, transforming the typically quiet Xue Village into a bustling tourist destination.
To accommodate this dramatic seasonal influx while serving the year-round needs of local residents, the center ingeniously integrates resident services including administration, senior care, and community spaces with essential tourist amenities such as a café and public restrooms. This dual-purpose approach creates a comprehensive hub that serves both the village's permanent population and its seasonal visitors.
The design team, led by architect Shi Zhou and including Yu Cai, Jiaying Huang, Liuqing Liu, Chunhui Mo, Yongyi Wu, Ziqi Wang, Thomas Jingwei Zhang, Mengqi Zhang, and Yingxi Dong, faced the challenge of working with a long, narrow, north-south-oriented site where villagers regularly establish market stalls. Bordered to the west by a green landscape belt along the South-to-North Water Diversion Project waterfront and to the east by open farmland, the design prioritizes preserving the site's inherently public nature while respecting the natural, undulating landscape of the water bank.
To counteract the potentially segregating and oppressive nature of the elongated site, the architects arranged public-facing programs within scattered semi-translucent and semi-reflective "boxes" positioned alongside carefully designed landscaped berms on the ground floor. These programs include the public-service hall, library café, public restrooms, and elderly care facilities. This innovative arrangement creates a green, flowing, and lightweight open space that facilitates activities for elderly residents while optimally serving both villagers and tourists throughout the year.
Floating above these semi-translucent and semi-reflective boxes and landscaped slopes is a more substantial, elongated volume that primarily houses internal operational functions including offices and staff rest areas. This upper level also connects to the village history exhibition hall within the distinctive observation tower and extends to a multi-purpose auditorium that is gently elevated at the building's northern end.
The auditorium features tiered seating and a striking full-height glazed wall alongside a balcony and external staircase that leads down to an outdoor stepped seating terrace and a small landscaped plaza positioned on the north-end grass berm. This design creates multiple venues for community gatherings and cultural events while providing flexible spaces for both intimate and large-scale functions.
Xue Village comprises seven loosely clustered hamlets, and the Cherry Blossom Avenue along the site, combined with the Expressway Along the Yellow River, physically separates the project site from both Xue Village's main residential areas and the tourist-focused cherry blossom forest zone. To address this geographical isolation and enhance wayfinding for visitors and residents alike, the architects transformed the staircase adjacent to the village history exhibition hall into an elevated observation tower.
This observation tower serves multiple functions, bolstering the service center's visual identity while creating a distinctive landmark that is easily recognizable to both villagers and visitors approaching from various directions. From this elevated vantage point, visitors can overlook the South-to-North Water Diversion Project as it crosses the Yellow River, witnessing an impressive infrastructure project that symbolizes human ambition in transforming natural landscapes. Simultaneously, they can appreciate the soft, natural beauty of the riverside cherry blossom trees, creating a harmonious blend of artificial and natural landscapes that defines the region's character.
The roof of the upper-level elongated structure is designed as an accessible terrace that serves multiple community functions. During regular days and the busy cherry blossom season, both villagers and tourists can access this roof terrace via the publicly accessible stairwell located within the observation tower. The design also incorporates emergency preparedness features, as this elevated area can function as an emergency refuge during severe weather events and natural disasters, demonstrating the architects' commitment to community resilience.
The material palette carefully reflects the building's dual public and functional nature. To highlight public accessibility and openness while visually minimizing the small-scale public service functional "boxes" on the ground floor, the design primarily employs semi-transparent channel glass. This innovative material choice allows visibility of the vegetation and farmland on the opposite side of the site, creating visual connections between interior and exterior spaces while maintaining weather protection.
The southern end's senior daycare zone features semi-reflective aluminum panel cladding, a design choice that ensures privacy for elderly users while subtly reflecting the surrounding greenery and sky. This creates a constantly changing facade that responds to seasonal variations and daily light conditions, integrating the building with its natural surroundings.
The solid portions of the second floor and the distinctive tower employ colored cast-in-place concrete, creating a visual dialogue with the large-scale water conservancy project as fellow examples of engineered infrastructure. Within the observation tower and central lightwell, the cast concrete walls feature carefully crafted petal-shaped punched openings and detailed bas-relief textures.
When natural daylight penetrates these interior spaces through the strategically positioned skylight from above, the resulting interplay of light and shadow evokes the ephemeral quality of falling cherry blossom petals in spring. This poetic architectural detail creates a sensory connection between the building's interior spaces and the seasonal natural phenomenon that draws visitors to the region.
The project represents a successful model for rural community development that addresses both local needs and tourism pressures. By integrating essential community services with tourist infrastructure, the Xue Village Community and Tourist Service Center demonstrates how thoughtful architectural design can support economic development while preserving community character and environmental sustainability.
Photographed by Chao Zhang, the completed project showcases Studio 10's innovative approach to contemporary Chinese rural architecture. The construction drawings were developed by Zhengzhou Kaiwu Landscape Design Ltd., with specialized consulting provided by Z Design & Planning for lighting design, Tao Qu for structural engineering, and Guangdong Yanshantan Construction & Development Group Co., Ltd. for curtain wall systems.
The Xue Village Community and Tourist Service Center stands as a testament to the potential for architecture to serve multiple constituencies while respecting local culture and natural environments. Its completion in 2024 marks a significant contribution to sustainable tourism infrastructure and community-centered design in contemporary China.
