The Lighthouse is a modular installation by JXY Studio set within the forest of Mount Luofu in Huizhou, Guangdong. Using industrial components organized into a porous, stratified framework, the piece accepts forest soil and organic matter, inviting habitation by insects, birds, and plants. Light, air, and rainfall move through the assembly, positioning the structure as a mediator between human-made infrastructure and the ecological processes of a subtropical forest.
The Lighthouse Technical Information
- Architects: JXY Studio
- Location: Mount Luofu, Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: © JXY Studio
The installation responds to the interdependencies among diverse species, seeking to blur the boundaries between the infrastructures produced by natural life and those manufactured by human life.
– JXY Studio
Site Ecology and Conceptual Intent
Set within the dense ecology of Mount Luofu, the installation positions architecture as an intermediary rather than a separator. The project recognizes soil, vegetation, light, humidity, and seasonal rainfall as coequal actors that shape spatial performance. By accommodating these elements instead of excluding them, the work aligns its design intent with the forest’s ongoing cycles of decomposition and growth, allowing materials and organisms to co-occupy the same structural field.
The concept frames human survival strategies, such as distributing water and energy and providing shelter, as analogues to the adaptive behaviors of non-human species. This equivalence recasts infrastructure as a shared set of techniques rather than a singular human project. The metaphor of a lighthouse operates didactically in this context, not as an object of visual focus but as a perceptual device that redirects attention toward multispecies coexistence. It signals a wayfinding logic that privileges ecological reciprocity over spatial dominance.
Material Strategy and Constructive Logic
The construction relies on ubiquitous industrial components assembled in modular units. Repetition and clear jointing establish a simple rule set that can be deployed, repaired, or expanded with minimal tools. The modules register as infrastructural rather than sculptural, offering a legible system of grids and connectors that supports both structural integrity and ecological porosity. This constructive clarity is central to the project’s pedagogical role, demonstrating how basic industrial parts can scaffold living processes without prescriptive form.
Forest soil, rich in humus and microorganisms, is packed or nested within portions of the framework to seed biological colonization. Over time, this medium invites insects, birds, epiphytes, and opportunistic plants, effectively turning the assembly into a substrate. Open joints, perforations, and non-continuous surfaces permit light, air, and rainfall to permeate, while also managing drainage and preventing anaerobic conditions. The result is a materially accessible system that couples human fabrication with biotic development rather than resisting it.
Spatial Organization and Environmental Performance
The installation develops a stratified spatial logic that produces habitats across scales. At the microscale, cavities and ledges host insects and facilitate seed germination. Intermediate pockets provide perches and shelter for small birds, while larger recesses accommodate denser plant growth. The organization reads as divided yet continuous, allowing movement through voids and across surfaces so that multiple species can occupy different layers without isolating the structure from the forest floor or canopy.
Porosity drives environmental performance. Cross ventilation moderates temperature and humidity within the assembly, daylight penetrates deep into the core, and rainfall enters and drains through controlled gaps to maintain hydrological exchange with the surrounding soil. These pathways also enable the circulation of ecological signals such as scents, spores, and sound. The architecture calibrates shelter and exposure, providing refuge where needed while maintaining sensory and material continuity with the wider forest milieu.
Infrastructural Hybridity and Design Ethics
The project purposefully blurs natural infrastructures like nests, burrows, and nutrient cycles with human infrastructures such as grids, conduits, and supports. By aligning these systems, the installation proposes habitat as a shared framework rather than a discrete object. Structural members double as perches or trellises, and cavities perform as both joints and seed beds, collapsing the conventional separation between technical function and ecological service.
This repositioning shifts architectural intent away from single-species utility toward multispecies support. Reciprocity becomes a design criterion: materials invite colonization, joints manage water and airflow, and modularity enables seasonal adjustment or repair without interrupting biological processes. As a methodology, the approach is transferable. Modular, materially frugal, and ecologically generative assemblies can be adapted to different climates and terrains by tuning porosity, soil composition, and orientation, foregrounding architecture’s capacity to scaffold coexistence rather than occupy ground.
About JXY Studio
JXY Studio is an interdisciplinary design practice based in China, founded by Jiaxun Xu and Yue Xu. Established to explore the reciprocal relationships between architecture and ecology, the studio focuses on experimental installations and spatial systems that engage natural processes and multispecies cohabitation. Their work blends modular design, ecological thinking, and infrastructural logic to foster environments where human and non-human life can coexist and flourish.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Curated by Donghua Chen
