At a glance, you might be forgiven for assuming that MVRDV's upcoming project is a cluster of naturally formed boulders. Look closer, though, and you'll notice a number of concrete tourism buildings that are carefully designed to blend in with the rugged coastal landscape.
The project, appropriately named Nature Rocks!, is being created in collaboration with HWC Architects for a park in Jialeshui, Taiwan, which is a tourist hotspot known for its extraordinary rock formations carved over time by wind and water.
Renderings depict a collection of sculptural, rock-like structures scattered across the site. At the park entrance, the buildings will host a welcome center, café, and souvenir shop. Another will provide exhibition and environmental education spaces, while a smaller structure will host public restrooms. Some of the buildings will feature accessible rooftops too.
MVRDV plans to make use of existing cracks in the natural landscape as drainage channels and to support the growth of vegetation. The buildings themselves will also be slowly covered by moss and small plants over time. Additionally, several existing dilapidated buildings on the site will be demolished and their concrete recycled and partly reused to realize the new structures.
"Inspired by the layered forms of the coastline, the design breaks up the existing straight road and reimagines recreational pathways as a cracked, rocky, naturalistic landscape that stitches the forest and the coastline back together," says MVRDV. "The rock-like fragments define various zones for circulation and public activities while some are extruded into buildings that echo the natural features of the local rock formations, blending into the surrounding environment."
Nature Rocks! was chosen following an architecture competition, though we've no word yet on when it's expected to be completed. MVRDV clearly draws a lot of inspiration from working with rock-like forms and the project follows several geology-inspired works by the Dutch firm, including SAMIH, Canyon, and Valley.
Source: MVRDV
