Near the city of Liuzhou a lime stone mine is situated. In this mine five of these beautiful mountains are dramatically cut into half. This situation so close to the city attracts developers anxious to create housing areas in and next to the city. The city seeks housing developments for its growing middle class. Can the creation of a new residential area in the mine be used for further restoration of the park? Can we turn this into an operation that restores the beauty of and creates a continuation with the surrounding landscape? And that stop the erosion of the already scared mountains?

The houses are conceived as individual ‘boxes with a view’ that respect the desire for individuality and that avoid a ‘hotel’ feeling. Their positions follow the natural topography of the slopes. The irregularity leads to houses with differentiated terraces. A three-meter distance between the houses and the rocks is maintained to allow for natural ventilation.The floors and walls of the houses are made of concrete, mixed with the local rocks in order to ‘blend’ the houses with the mountains. They are positioned on columns and stabilized by dowels where needed. The differentiation of the needed dowels and props leads to an intriguing spatial differentiation of the vertical village: it echoes clearly the structure of the mountains. Stairs follow the empty spaces in between the boxes. It leads to a web of ‘streets’ through these vertical villages.