SAOTA, the South African architecture practice, has taken its ongoing 40th-anniversary retrospective tour to China's southwest.
After a high-energy, future-facing opening in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, the latest stop in Sichuan province's Chengdu feels slower, more intimate and deeply rooted in place.
This time, the conversation is not primarily about technology or innovation, it is about something older and more elemental: how people actually live when they are given the chance to step outside.
Outdoor lifestyle brand Yardcom remains the project's strategic partner, accompanying SAOTA from Milan Design Week to Shenzhen and, now, to Chengdu. Together, they are exploring a question: What happens when outdoor space stops being an amenity and becomes the center of daily life?
And perhaps nowhere in China is better placed to provide answers than Chengdu, a city that has long been described as a place that knows how to enjoy itself.
There is an old saying: "The young should not leave Sichuan, and the old should never leave it."
The local word bashi — a feeling of deep, unforced comfort — is not marketing speak, it is a lived cultural condition.
Traditional Chengdu houses are organized around the yuanba, a semi-open courtyard that connects the property's main living spaces.
Local architect Zhang Can of CSD Design noted: "Chengdu people love to sit in the courtyard drinking tea and talking.
"The wisdom of the traditional courtyard is about understanding comfort, human connection and the natural rhythm of the day. If modern housing ignores that, it risks becoming cold and purely visual."
Song Zhen, general manager of interior design at property developer Wanhua Group, echoed Zhang, noting that, in recent years, clients have moved beyond simply wanting a courtyard. "They now insist that the outdoor space must actually be livable. They are no longer asking for landscape, they are asking for a setting where everyday life can genuinely unfold."
Greg Truen, founding partner and executive director of SAOTA, explained: "Architecture is never an isolated object. It belongs to the site, to the climate and, above all, to life itself. The best architecture creates the possibility for people to reconnect with nature."
He added that earlier decades often prioritized expensive materials and dramatic architectural statements, but more recently, the shift has been toward lived experience — light, air, the presence of plants, the changing seasons and the simple ability to move fluidly between inside and outside.
Damon Ma, general manager of Yardcom, agreed, noting that the biggest change globally over the past two years is the move from "looking good" to "working well".
"People are finally thinking seriously about how these spaces will actually be used. Outdoor areas are no longer just extensions of the building. They are becoming complete environments that can support daily living, social life and a sense of well-being," he said.
What was once treated as an optional feature, the company says, is increasingly understood to be essential.
The Chengdu leg of the tour has been notable less for spectacle than for the quiet intensity of engagement it has provoked.
One visitor, a practicing architect, brought his young son. After studying the models, the boy expressed his wish to become an architect himself.
After his visit, Li Xiangbei, a professor at Chongqing University, encouraged his architecture students to experience the exhibition as well.
Lu Ke, SAOTA's East Asia and Greater China commercial lead, guided many of the visits.
"We organize these exhibitions not only to present 40 years of built work, but to create a platform for equal dialogue. We hope South African design thinking can offer something useful to colleagues in China, and we equally hope to absorb the classic wisdom of Chinese traditional architecture so that it can enrich SAOTA's own global practice."
