Fireplace Valley Sales Center | Ekphrastics
Fireplace Valley Sales Center by Zhou Jing

Fireplace Valley Sales Center

Golden A' Design Award Winner 2021

Pale wood paneling rises in a dramatic pitched ceiling that draws the eye upward and establishes the architectural hierarchy of Zhou Jing's Fireplace Valley Sales Center, where the soaring angled plane creates a sheltering canopy above a meticulously choreographed interior landscape of quietude and refined materiality. The compositional structure follows a classical tripartite horizontal division with the luminous ceiling occupying the upper register, an expansive glass curtain wall forming the middle band, and the furnishing arrangement grounding the lower zone. Floor-to-ceiling glazing stretches across the entire rear elevation, framed by slender black metal mullions that create a rhythmic vertical cadence against the verdant landscape beyond, where mature deciduous trees and ornamental grasses establish an atmospheric dialogue between interior sanctuary and natural environment. The chromatic palette demonstrates exceptional restraint, built upon a foundation of warm neutrals including ash wood tones approaching raw sienna and Naples yellow, crisp whites suggesting titanite white, soft grays in the stone and marble elements, and organic accents of natural rattan in warm ochre and honey tones. Two symmetrically positioned built-in daybeds upholstered in ivory linen anchor the foreground, their rectilinear geometry softened by houndstooth-patterned accent cushions and flanked by sculptural gray marble side tables with hourglass profiles. A central axis leads through three shallow steps to an elevated lounge zone where contemporary egg-shaped rattan chairs with cognac leather headrests and curved sculptural seating elements in soft terracotta tones create intimate conversation groupings around low circular tables. The circular sunken fire pit in the immediate foreground commands attention as the spiritual and compositional heart of the space, its black obsidian-like aggregate bed cradling a living flame that introduces the only warm chromatic accent and kinetic element to the otherwise serene composition.

The best way to appreciate beauty of Guilin is to take a bamboo raft and gently row in the aesthetic, poetic realm. Against the creamy-white marble background at the entrance to the Sales Center, a half-arc, purple landscape marble emulates form of a small boat in a skillful way as if a fishing boat slowly approaches in the misty spray under a peak. The Negotiation Area features sinking couches where customers can sit around. With an atomized fireplace embedded on ground as the center.