Wuhan is at the center of China. Being regarded as one of the three “fire stoves”, it is the hottest city in China. Wuhan has already established 2000-2020 urban planning still based on the principles of severance and zoning system, due to the lag of new urbanism theory in practice. It costs too much resource if we rigidly erase the made-up principles and rapidly turn into new theories.

The designers inspiration comes from one of the Wuhan folk-customs, which is called “bamboo bed array”. Due to the hotness in Wuhan, all citizens carry bamboo beds to the outside to enjoy the cool. People with their bamboo-beds gather in arrays all around the city, from the roadsides to the roofs. These bamboo beds take on all kinds of functions, such as sleeping, playing, eating, reading, chatting and so on. Using this folk-custom for reference, our concept comes into being. The philosophy is conquering the unyielding with the yielding. Eluding the rigid transformation of the urban planning, we create new “bamboo bed” functional boxes——BAMMIXes designed by Zhaochen Wang and Ran She diffuse them to different zonings which needs complementary functions all around the city. These boxes inject functions into parts to fit the mixed demands of the city. In this way, each zoning can get functions they lacked, frequently enhance the quality of life, and reach the purpose of max-mix.

Facing this wrong Modernism Zoning Planning System, we need to inject a yielding method. Simply saying, city functions have been divided into four sections: Residential, Recreational, Commercial and Industrial. Our way is to input artificial space which inherits local cultural and complementary functions of that area. We think this method is a yielding but efficient way to solve the unyielding zoning problem in modern China. These BAMMIXes are made of bamboos which is indigenous and sustainable. Reminding citizens of their folk-custom, they can also be transported to one place for celebrations. Each BAMMIX carries the imprinted activities of different zonings, so the aggregation represents true local culture and celebration of city Wuhan.