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Tengger Desert is the fourth largest and southern most desert in China. Since early 90's, a non-profit organization had been planting trees on the fringe of the desert to contain its hazardous expansion eastward. Commissioned by the organization, designRESERVE has designed a new campsite which provides shelter and supporting facilities for tree planting volunteers during field operation. Considering the severe site conditions, restrained budget and timeframe for construction, designRESERVE developed prototypes with 3D concrete printing technology to accommodate various types of use.
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The goal of designRESERVE is to create a durable, modular shelter system that also serves as a platform for public environmental education. The camp comprises nine modular units accommodating living room, kitchen, restrooms, showers, and storage. Each unit’s size and weight are optimized for transportation and fast assembly in remote desert areas. Considering the site’s exposure to constant storm as strong as 34m/s in record, the profile of units is articulated with undulant curve to minimize wind load. The fluent texture of building surface corresponds to the rolling landscape of surrounding dunes. Since the major component of printed concrete is essential alternative form of sands, the campsite thus achieves great harmony with the nature.
The project utilizes reversible construction methods to minimize environmental impact, with the possibility of future relocations as reforestation program expand. Without permanent foundation, the complex sits on a platform supported by reusable plastic pallets reinforced with steel slabs. Both physically and symbolically, the whole campsite is floating on sands. This approach significantly reduces the construction time, cost and energy consumption on site, while enhances the structure’s resilience to ever-changing contour of the desert. The campsite is fully powered by off-grid PV system consists of high-efficiency solar panels, resulting in ultra-low carbon emission level and fully self-sustaining status of the project.
Given the desert’s harsh construction conditions and limited time frame, design team employed 3D concrete printing technology (supported by Prof. Xu Weiguo’s lab from Tsinghua University) for rapid on-site installation. Instead of concentrated volume, the required program of total 150 sqm campsite is divided into nine modular units accommodating living room, kitchen, restrooms, bathroom, and storage. Arranged in an enclosed layout, the cluster, also called “Desert Ark”, provides a secure, aesthetically powerful, and spiritually enforcing retreat in the middle of desolate land. Adjacent to the site, lies an intermittent desert lake fed by groundwater from nearby Helan Mountains, providing natural water supply for edge-locking foresting and camp activities. Using biodegradation tank to collect and filtrate drainage, the campsite is able to recycle 100% sewage for irrigation and fertilization of planted trees. As China’s first 3D concrete-printed structure in desert environment, the project not only supports ecological restoration in ethnic minority region of Inner Mongolia, but also serves as an architectural prototype for future extraterrestrial habitat of humankind.
The client, Alxa Tennger Desert Ecology Fund, is a non-profit group which had devoted to ecological restoration of the area for thirty years, with initiative of “Planting Trees, Planting Hearts". As the founder, Mr. Wu Xiangrong, has commented, “the construction of Desert Ark project not only shows promising application of the 3D-printed concrete in extreme environment, but also supports our strategy of sustainable planting with innovation of advance technology.”
Founded by Fangzhou Lydia Song and Feng Yue in Beijing and “Silicon Valey” of California, designRESERVE is an architectural studio dedicated to sustainable physical society, with focus on building progressive spaces for urban economy and culture. The team is consisted of professionals from the field of urban design, architecture, landscape, visual art and curation. In the first ten years of practice and through numerous projects in various scales, designRESERVE has been advocating “participation domain”, an ideal community with vitality, diversity and inclusiveness. Responding to the challenges of post-globalization era of Chinese cities, the firm’s practice is highly context-specific and driven by deep interests of integrating contemporary life into local history. Since 2019, designRESERVE has been listed twice by Architectural Digest Magazine as one of most influential architecture and interior firms in China.
