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imagined.

A look inside the world of rapidly renewable materials. 

"Breathing Life into Sustainability”: The Ya'an Amphitheater Designed with Engineered Bamboo

Updated: Feb 14, 2023

The Sichuan Ya'an Mengding Mountain Blossom Boutique Resort Project stands as a testament to innovative tourism development, embodying a unique fusion of local Zen & Tea culture and modern amenities. As the first high-end cultural tourism project in Ya'an city and the largest Blossom Hill boutique hotel in China, the resort offers a truly distinctive experience for both local and visiting guests.


The project, invested by Ya'an Shutian Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., was carefully crafted to maximize the utilization of the area's tea resources, transforming them into a thriving source of economic and tourism opportunities. With its official opening in 2019, the Blossom Boutique Resort continues to set a new standard for sustainable tourism and cultural preservation in the region. Due to project constraints, the construction of this dome was not realized, however, we are proud to have completed the engineering, authority approval process and client acceptance at the early stage of bamboo structures in the world. The following is the story behind the design.


Project Design Vision

The Project Designer wants to express the concept of "Zen culture" and "Tea culture" in a concentrated and artistic form in a specific architectural space, providing tourists with a double experience of beauty and spirituality. As a green, carbon-fixing and fast-growing biomass material, bamboo is well fitted in traditional Chinese architectural style. After processed by modern technology, engineered bamboo’s performance can surpass timber in strength, toughness, density and other mechanical properties, and be applied in large-scale outdoor building, residences and various public facilities.


Engineered Bamboo Solutions

altPlus’ design team created a curved engineered bamboo dome surrounded by the central green space, which can not only make full use of engineered bamboo’s excellent tensile & bending strength, but also achieve the visual effect of lightness and floating on site by adjusting the height and radian of the dome to make people enjoy the slow life in a bamboo rhyme. At the beginning of design, the national standard of engineered bamboo industry has not been launched, altPlus team had to work diligently to prove out the relative work and material standards from ASTM (established in 2012) and their relationship with the China GB Wood Structure standard which existed, but had not much understanding at the time. Considering the materials had not previously had such a significant application in a structure, altPlus’ team worked with world renown Timber Structure teams from Japan & USA (Chutto and Walsh Industries ) to achieve the complex engineering and building methodology needs for that time.


If you want to know more about the project, please visit the project profile.



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