Stone-Ideas.com 
Deserts are among the most fascinating places on Earth: After just a few kilometers, they are, like the oceans, without beginning or end, and yet you don’t immediately fear dying of thirst or starvation, but rather feel like you’re on an alien planet, perhaps Mars. Among the most fascinating phenomena in a sandy desert are the sand dunes, in some places several hundred meters high: They are masses weighing tons in a trapezoidal shape, yet they are constantly reshaped by the wind, as if by a feather.
Sand dunes are the hallmark of the city of Dunhuang in northern China. Keywords for the surrounding area are the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts. At the site of today’s city of Dunhuang, a powerful oasis has existed since time immemorial: It was a resting place along the Silk Road on its route south of Mongolia.
The Beijing-based team at ZXD Architects was commissioned to create a meeting point on Yangguan Avenue in Duanhuang for the numerous tourists arriving in the city after a long journey along the desert road, behind which towering dunes rise into the sky.
The architects’ goal is always to reflect their surroundings in their buildings. Here, they have done so in several ways: The material for the walls is sandstone in the yellow color of desert sand, but conversely, the four buildings of the visitor center are arranged in a way familiar from villages throughout China.
Tourist attractions not far from the city center include the Singing Dunes (Mingsha Shan) and the rock grottoes (Magao), which Buddhist monks created there. The grottos are also reflected in the visitor center: The extremely thick walls have deep cutouts for windows and doors, as if one were looking from the outside into and entering mysterious caves within.
Each of the interconnected buildings has a different function, ranging from service and a restaurant to administrative offices.
A highlight of the architecture are the roofs of the low buildings: they, too, are covered with large slabs of the sand-colored stone. The slope reflects the angle of the slopes of the nearby dunes.
The architecture was honored with one of the German Design Awards in 2021.
