In the bustling heart of Nanjing, a 654 sqm double-height commercial space. The client approached us to design an atrium sightseeing space themed around the "Ode to a Humble Abode（《陋室铭》）," blending ancient Chinese style with mechanical elements.

The site occupies levels L5-L6 of Jinling Center (JLC), adjacent to Nanjing's busiest Xinjiekou commercial hub in Qinhuai District. A full-height glazed facade faces the bustling streets below. Over 1,200 years ago, Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi wrote "Five Poems of Jinling (《金陵五题》)", a set of famous five seven-character quatrains about Jinling (now Nanjing). One of these poems, "Wuyi Lane (《乌衣巷》)" was inspired by the banks of the Qinhuai River:

"Swallows that once graced noble halls, Now fly through common doorways."

The former prosperity of powerful clans has now transformed into the vibrant hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Yet prosperity's zenith isn't always revelry. Ancient sages, beyond the mundane pursuits of paperwork and music, sought spiritual refuge transcending material desires. Compared to external temptations, "Though this be a humble abode, my virtue lends it fragrance" - from Liu Yuxi's "Ode to a Humble Abode（《陋室铭》）" - emphasizes the value of inner virtue.

Today, in a bustling top-tier urban commercial area, our design aim seeks to evoke a pastoral retreat through the imagery of "fishing, wood chopping, farming, and scholarly pursuits," inspired by Liu Yuxi's "Ode to a Humble Abode" (《陋室铭》).

01 "Miniature World" - An Overview from Outside the Frame

Within this 654-sqm atrium, the goal is to create a pastoral landscape scene. The client also requested the inclusion of robotic puppets, a modern collision of mechanical technology within a traditional space.

Thus, the design strategy pointed toward a miniature world.

By condensing the sun, moon, stars, mountains, forests, valleys, farmlands, and rivers into a compact realm, it creates a sense of "a hidden paradise within a teapot."

The challenge lies in how to retain the traditional landscape aesthetics in a miniature scene while accommodating visitors and robotic puppets, ensuring their paths never cross awkwardly. This is an exceptionally rare design experiment.

On the main facade facing the urban window view, undulating mountains and rivers merge with the sky, creating a scene both natural and dreamlike.

In terms of space, the 600 sqm OpenLab atrium is designed to be divided into six macro-miniature scenes with pastoral landscape backgrounds: Humble Abode, Pastoral Fields, Lotus Pond, Mountain Forest, Secluded Valley, and River. Each space features robotic puppets performing different historical allusions. The puppet sizes were carefully designed at one-third human scale to better integrate into this miniature world scenario.

On the plan, mountains as volumes, rivers as paths. The miniature world's grand waterways serve as primary visitor routes, guiding exploration through this micro-space while offering off-frame observation of human narrative scenes.

02 "Paradise in a Pot" - Creating a Miniature World with Mechanical and Chinese Traditional Aesthetics

The design's unique micro - perspective draws on traditional Chinese painting techniques, typified by "Along the River During the Qingming Festival（《清明上河图》）." A scattered-layout approach unfolds minute scenes across a grand panoramic scroll. From afar, one sees the undulating contours of mountains and rivers; at mid-range, rooftops, thatched cottages, pine forests, and boulders; up close, figures and animals move about.

However, since mechanical puppets need to maintain a safe distance from visitors, and the integrity and unity of the scene are key design considerations, there are two distinct routes in the space. One is a human - scale pedestrian pathway, and the other is for miniature mechanized puppets. The two routes interweave visually but remain separate in path, with careful spatial offsets. This allows visitors to get close - up views while preventing accidental contact with mechanical installations.

The sides of the visitor pathways are elevated and partitioned to ensure that the routes for visitors and puppets are close yet independent.

【Water Curtain Fairyland】 simulates the streams and waterfalls in the mountains and forests, adding the experience of water sounds. It also regulates the indoor environmental humidity, providing favorable living conditions for real plants.

【Hundred-Foot Skyward Rainbow】, an arched mountain bridge scaled for the puppets. Originally designed as a stone arch bridge, it was adapted to a wooden structure during implementation.

Other key design scenes were later handed over to the production team JIN ARTS for implementation, due to the client team's considerations of schedule, cost, and other factors. The detail process involved a significant amount of changes and adjustments, resulting in only partial original design were preserved.

A process animation of scene modeling renders, featuring three narrative sequences: "Woodcutter Watching Chess," "Seeking Tao Under Pine Trees," and "The Old Drunkard’s Pavilion." During design discussions, it was proposed that the puppets could remain minimally detailed—eschewing facial expressions to transcend individuality and embody universal archetypes. However, the final implementation leaned toward realism. The movements were combined with stage-like lighting, with several stage show presentations scheduled daily.

03 Planting Design - Harmonizing with Chinese Penjing Art

For the planting design, the client engaged Shanghai MOOOONS Landscape as consultants for the schematic planting design and intelligent maintenance systems during the design phase.

The atmosphere of planting draws inspiration from landscape paintings by Tang Bohu, Shen Zhou, Ni Yunlin and other masters. Creating a sense of vastness within the miniature space required particularly careful selection of specialized plant species. At this point, traditional Chinese penjing art, with its artistic characteristics of "shrinking landscapes into inches and reveal grandeur in miniature," perfectly complements the scaled-down environment.

The indoor display of real plants requires scientific and meticulous supplementary lighting, ventilation, temperature control, water and fertilizer management, and monitoring and sensing systems—all requiring intelligent maintenance based on the habits of different plants. The design needs to combine plant requirements and propose hidden solutions like circulation fans, supplementary lights, etc. In fact, layout and concealment of artificial snow systems, misting systems, wind environment systems, and audio systems, etc., are all within the scope of the design considerations. During implementation, the plant maintenance system was handled by the execution team, with final adjustments made per on-site conditions.

04 Panorama Presentation Under Grand Illumination

The ceiling was originally conceived as an inverted mirrored garden for embodying an ultimate sense of fantasy, later simplified due to structural load limitations. Functionally, it integrates concealed sprinklers, ambient lighting, and the starlight effects during performance. At the same time, considering the overall nature of the light, the design proposed the possibility of grand overall lighting to create the effect of natural light penetrating through the clouds and illuminating the ground.

During the schematic design phase, the array of lights simulates the grand overall illumination of natural daylight at different times of day, assisting in supplementary lighting for the plants on site. The ceiling is densely perforated with holes of various sizes to conceal the fire sprinkler heads and achieve a starry effect under special night scenes. The ascending curvilinear vault echoes the ground's river-inspired paving patterns.

In the actual implementation, the form of the ground paving has changed, and the functional content carried by the ceiling is more complex compared to the design phase.

05 Mechanical Puppets & Chinese Cultural Allusions

Dynamic scene design must balance overall visual harmony and hierarchy. In static environments, moving elements naturally draw the eye, becoming the focal point. If mishandled, this may invert the visual hierarchy and shift attention to trivial details, rather than maintaining focus on the overall compositional tranquility. Conversely, when balanced skillfully, these dynamic elements can breathe life into the panorama, making it feel organically animated.

Mechanical puppets serve as dynamic highlights that also embody cultural narratives. Rooted in this cultural soil, the physical manifestations of classic stories resonate profoundly with audiences steeped in traditional cultural contexts.

For example, tales familiar to all:

Cowherd Riding an Ox —— "The cowherd rides his yellow ox, his song echoing through wooded slopes."

Fishing in the Cold River —— "A straw-cloaked man on a lone boat, fishing in the snow-covered cold river."

Ode to a Humble Abode —— "Here I may play my plain-stringed lute, Or pore upon the Classics’ scrolls, Free from the stirring flute and official documents piled to weary form."

And the "Woodcutter Watching Chess" with a Touch of Immortality Seeking —— "In Xinan's Stone Chamber Hill, during the Jin Dynasty, Wang Zhi was chopping wood when he saw several boys playing chess and singing. He paused to watch their game. One boy gave him something like a date pit, which he put in his mouth and felt no hunger. After a while, the boy said, 'Why not leave?' Wang Zhi looked up and saw his axe handle had rotted away. Returning home, he found no one from his time." —— Ren Fang, "Strange Tales" (Southern Dynasties, Liang Dynasty)

Zen Master Bodhidharma's legendary story of crossing the river on a reed ——
"After conversing with Emperor Wu of Liang, Bodhidharma departed. Emperor Wu, filled with regret, immediately sent a messenger on a donkey to pursue him. When the messenger reached the middle section of Mount Mufu, the mountain peaks suddenly closed in, trapping the group between them. Meanwhile, Bodhidharma had arrived at the riverbank. Seeing the pursuers, he plucked a reed from the shore, cast it into the river, and it transformed into a small boat, carrying him gracefully across the river."

The JIN ARTS team has made a groundbreaking contribution in the visual presentation of cinematic props and mechanized motion. By integrating tiny mechanical motors into the miniature puppet figures, they have successfully implemented these designs in commercial spatial environments. This represents significant breakthroughs in both technology and application.

06 A Microcosm of Contemplative Culture in the Metropolis

In his poem "Osmanthus Fragrance: Jinling Nostalgia（《桂枝香·金陵怀古》）" Wang Anshi wrote: "The old affairs of the Six Dynasties flow away with the water, only the cold mist and fragrant grass remain green." Taking the ancient capital Nanjing as an example, it symbolizes the rise and fall of all things in the world, following the law of impermanence. Now that we are in a peaceful era, it is fortunate indeed. However, the truly enlightened can, in the midst of abundant material resources, remain unattached to material pleasures and undisturbed by personal sorrows. They return to the inner peace of a pastoral life and enjoy a serene and untroubled tranquility in the midst of the bustling city.

Paradise in a Pot (officially named Open Garden) serves as both a humble retreat and a garden amidst the bustling metropolis. It is also a space for mental adjustment and reflection. Its inherently immersive quietude brings mental calm and focus. Through the design perspectives of the "panorama of existence" and the "outsider's perspective," it guides visitors to transcend self-imposed confines, observe and perceive the vast world and myriad lives from a heightened vantage point.

Yet experiencing Open Garden is different from merely appreciating a landscape painting. To wander its paths is to inhabit the scene itself, while the "outsider's perspective" gently nudges visitors to avoid clinging to superficial forms. Instead, it invites them to step beyond illusion, observing the story from without. As Wang Guowei said in "Poetic Remarks on the Human World（《人间词话》）": "Immersion generates vitality; distance begets transcendence."

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Paradise in a Pot: A Mechanical Miniature with Chinese Traditional Aesthetics in a Commercial Atrium

Nanjing, China

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Paradise in a Pot: A Mechanical Miniature with Chinese Traditional Aesthetics in a Commercial Atrium

Nanjing, China

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