CANADIAN ARCHITECT 12/21
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AWARD OF MERIT
THE PANDA PAVILIONS Chengdu, China Atelier Ping Jiang / EID Arch
Projects that aim to preserve endangered wildlife often involve providing public access to animals in captivity. Not all that long ago, people considered it acceptable to confine beasts in small cages and stare at them from all sides. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen so much anymore. Today the challenge is to provide the animals with as natural, generously sized, and undisturbed an environment as possible, while still allowing humans to get close enough to be captivated by the captives, for that is how we become stakeholders in the survival of a species. The new Panda Pavilions designed for China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (also known as Panda Base) meet this delicate balancing act with insight, ingenuity, and no small amount of poetry.
Located in Sichuan Province in a national forest park about 10 km from downtown Chengdu, Panda Base was established in the 1980s by a handful of researcher/preservationists with six rescued giant pandas. Without capturing a single giant panda from the wild, the Base has increased its captive population of the species to well over 200. The centre combines scientific research and panda breeding with public education and environmental tourism, and is a Global 500 of the United Nations Environment Programme destination. A convergence of architecture, landscape, and land art, the four ring-shaped pavilions nestle into park’s woodland slopes, enclosing terraced outdoor space for pandas. Connecting pathways and bermed
ABOVE The design of the research and educational facility is organized around four open-air circular courtyards, which serve as outdoor playgrounds for the pandas, while providing researchers and visitors with a continuous connection with nature. OPPOSITE Inside, the ring-shaped pavilions include observation areas, indoor living quarters for the pandas, administrative offices, and support spaces.
CA Dec 21.indd 64
2021-11-17 12:43 PM