A Pause in the Mountain and City: Re-Imagining Tea Drinking in Guangzhou, China

Abstract

The thesis seeks to develop an architectural form that helps create an awareness of the historic relationship between the Baiyun mountains and Guangzhou city. Their physical connection has existed since the city’s foundation. However, as the city has grown, the spiritual connection with the mountains has decreased. With a dense population and vast urbanized area, the mountains are at risk of being neglected by Guangzhou’s urban dwellers. Instead, they treat the mountains as a place for entertainment. The result is the mountains have become merely a consumptive resource for the city. This thesis will reconnect the mountains and the city through creating a dialogue. The dialogue embraces the differences and argues for the necessity of a new relationship between the mountains and the city.