Tianfu Agricultural Expo Garden is found in Xingyi Town, Xinjin, Sichuan, and at its core is the Green Seedling Project on Agricultural Expo Island. Five wood-framed structures are laid out thoughtfully on the property, with an overall floor space of 10,500 m². The 1st to 3rd floors are used by different industries—agricultural sci-tech, breeding research, and culture exhibitions.
It is located on flat, open agricultural land, with seemingly endless rice paddies, occasional field pathways, and tall trees—a typical rural western Sichuan landscape. It is set on an old homestead site with irregular boundaries, and the design responds by organizing the site into modular building fragments that reflect the traditional Linpan settlement pattern. Open fields of cultivation extend under and around buildings, so that they seem organically to emerge from the ground.
The four principal buildings manifest the theme of « Green Seedling, » extending in three directions with minimum rotations to accommodate the irregular boundary. Each of the five seedling modules is split into three branched volumes. Their common cores coalesce into a double height semi outdoor hall with deep eaves—an ideal communal space in the warm, rainy climate of western Sichuan.
Materials are modest and locally derived: dark-gray ceramic tiles, warm-colored glulam wood, and gray-painted walls evoke the wood, green-tile, and brick vernacular of area farmhouses. These industrially manufactured materials are used in long, continuous strips that refer to traditional craftsmanship—creating a dialogue between periods.
Architecturally, the Green Seedling units sprout from a central geometric core as three arched timber roofs at 120° intervals, forming a clover-like plan. This botanical-inspired form adapts to sunlight, wind, and rain, mirroring how plants naturally optimize environmental forces. Adjacent to the east, Academician Cui Kai’s main Agricultural Expo exhibition hall—with its five monumental arches—provides a visible landmark. The Seedling roofs use glulam arches to echo this undulating skyline and dialogue with the expansive horizon.
The damp site posed the risk of flooding, so three units (1, 4, and 5) are placed on 1 meter-high concrete base slabs to prevent wood from coming into contact with the ground. Unit 2 and 3 ground floors are made of concrete to house equipment rooms, laboratories, and kitchens—fulfilling fire, damp, and vibration requirements. The upper floors are glulam framed over the concrete bases, forming a hybrid structural system that is both visual and functional.
Functional flexibility drove design: extensive bay spans and 33 m glulam arches enable clear, column-free space above. Arches span longitudinally, while transverse secondary beams—echoing leaf veins—stretch out to carry deep, thin eaves. Steel plate ribs to beam ends and aluminum cladding lend slim lines while referencing the traditional tile edges, creating a satisfying visual hierarchy. Interiors avoid decoration—exposed beams and columns increase the structural honesty and bring natural warmth to the space through sunlit glulam color.
Each arch is supported by sloping concrete columns, slender steel columns symmetrically positioned to carry the overhanging roof canopy—light in form but protective. Materials—wood, concrete, steel—each perform a clearly structural role, a « transparent structure » is exposed.
Rainwater runs outward through perimeter outlets and inward to a rainwater bucket above the central hall. From here, pipes run downward inside hexagonal concrete columns to feed an underground reservoir. Collected water irrigates landscape greening and flushes roads, enabling sustainable recycling of resources.
