Situated on the former Yunnan Baiyao factory site in Kunming, this project redefines a 1990s industrial compound as a new cultural and commercial engine for traditional Chinese medicine. The intervention retains the existing building mass—41,000 square meters across a 27,000 square meter plot—yet reorganizes its identity through façade reconstruction, circulation strategy, and programmatic recalibration.

The site operates at three scales. At the territorial level, it acts as a strategic node in Yunnan’s herbal medicine economy—anchoring domestic production while projecting toward Southeast Asia. At the urban scale, it is a porous, hybrid block—a smart industrial cluster fused with public life, functioning across an 18-hour cycle. At the architectural scale, it becomes a framework for flexible reuse, where traditional herbal knowledge meets contemporary materiality and spatial storytelling.

The design concept—“Hyperlink Habitat”—is built on layered connectivity. Two main axes define circulation, along which finger-like building volumes stretch and interlace. A new elevated system—the Boundless Cloud Corridor—connects upper floors, enabling climate-proof movement and cross-program activation. Ground floors remain open, event-ready, and civic-facing.

Materially and formally, the architecture draws from the Compendium of Materia Medica. Façade treatments are categorized by six medicinal types—fruit, beast, vegetable, grass, mineral, tree—each translated into distinct color fields and textures. This taxonomy becomes a spatial and visual narrative, guiding movement and anchoring identity.

Physical and digital layers are intentionally blurred. Immersive interfaces, live commerce, herbal gastronomy, and health services coexist with office programs and exhibition venues. Instead of a singular icon, the project offers a system of conditions: adaptable, walkable, commercial, cultural. It is a living archive of Yunnan’s medicinal heritage—open-ended, infrastructural, and ready to evolve.