Swoop Studio has designed Listening-to-the-Rain Stop, a landscape architecture project in Louyou County, China.

Listening-to-the-Rain Stop is a rural public art facility situated along the Qujiang River, where its black structure lightly floats in the seasonal crop rotation fields, exploring the fusional experience of rural everydayness with artistic spirituality, presenting the value of rural land through perceptual experience.

The unique form of the roof serves as the structural foundation; the overall roof structure is composed of cantilevered steel ribs with repeated L-shaped cross-sections, clamped by thin steel plates from the inside, forming a cohesive whole.

The spaces between the roof's counter ribs are filled with dark aluminium foam panels. The contrast between refined and rough materials creates a dramatic interplay.

"The structure secretly houses the 'dripping into buried jar' sound installation, which is seamlessly integrated into the overall drainage system of the structure," said Swoop Studio. "The resonance of the old jars gives the rain new sound."

This project has been shortlisted in the landscape and urban project category of Dezeen Awards China 2024.

Studio: Swoop Studio
Project: Listening-to-the-Rain Stop
Credits: Wen Shen, AND Office, Zhun Zhang, Xiaojie Hu, Ji Wu, Longyou County People's Government, Longyou Hu Construction and Management Center, Longyou County Transportation Investment Group, China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Shanghai Fengyuzhu Culture and Tech and Shanghai Bilibili Technology