Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Drawing: Crosswaters Bridge















Readers of this site may know I recently visited Nankunshan in Guangzhou province, China, for some quality cycling with some of the colossi guys. Astute readers may know that the title photo I use as a banner was actually taken from my first visit to the area on an mtb in 2009, shortly before I started this blog. In 2009 we stayed at the Crosswaters resort, whereas a couple of months ago Crosswaters was full, so we went for Pattra. Pattra makes more sense for cycling from a logistics point of view, but Crosswaters is that rather unique thing in China- a considered design hotel that embraces landscape and traditional Chinese construction methods but reinterprets in a modern way.

And so I found myself with Mrs bikesandbuldings in Crosswaters last weekend sitting on our villa balcony making this quick sketch of the bridge that marks the entry to the resort. It is predominantly made of bamboo, with a little steel and some concrete where required. Of course, this brings out all sorts of 'fake' cries of derision on tripadvisor, but if you can get over a bit of the grey stuff and appreciate this for what it is, it's a pretty unique piece of architecture set within quite an unlikely landscape.

http://www.thecoolist.com/landscape-architecture-designs-10-modern-masterpieces/crosswaters-ecolodge-guangdong-province-china-3/

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