Lingshui Bay in Dalian is both a strategic node in the city’s “westward and southward” expansion and a critical urban arm that extends public life toward the shoreline. In planning terms, the area continues Dalian’s coastal tradition of prioritizing public access and cultural expression, with a comprehensive public network of seaside promenades, sculpture clusters and thematic plazas.

Designed by Peidong Zhu, Co-Founder and Chief Architect of line+ studio, “Stone Prism” is the first public building completed within the Lingshui Bay community park. Its core mission goes beyond a single programmatic brief: it aims to operate as a communal “seaside parlor” serving the surrounding neighborhood.

Responding to Dalian’s distinctive “mountain-sea-city” condition—where the sea hosts islands and the city nests among heights, and where the periphery preserves a continuous mountain-sea edge—our design uses contemporary architectural language to address this romantic spatial tension. The goal is to anchor the boundary between city and nature, between everyday life and the exceptional, and to create an accessible, experiential public landmark along the shore.

“Stacking stones” is a familiar sight along the shore—childish play in one moment, a traveler’s trace in the next. This spontaneous interactive act points to a primordial form of seaside public participation, a cross-cultural, non-verbal game. It aligns directly with our intention for the building to become a shared marker that opens views to the sea and evokes collective resonance.

△Conceptual massing evolution

Using “stacking stones” as the behavioral archetype, we translated the mechanical tensions—of stacking, squeezing and colliding stone—into the project’s visual and spatial dynamics. The result is a three-tiered volumetric arrangement: the ground level is raised 2 meters and functions as an open “community parlor” and civic exhibition interface; the second level hosts sport-oriented amenities—swimming and fitness—for nearby residents, and opens framed views toward different coastal directions through geometric apertures in the façades; the third level is dedicated to leisure and social functions—cafés, lounges and dining—and its staggered volumes create rooftop terraces for outdoor sea-facing activity.

△Mass evolution

△ Massing model study

△ Model

Three independent volumes—each different in size and character—are stacked to form a coherent whole, resembling a monumental “reef” at the shoreline that gazes toward the distant isles. Through refined geometries and chamfered cuts, the composition achieves a sense of lightness and clarity in its volumetric relationships, establishing a legible identity on the southern coastal edge.

The weathered reef at the shore—punctured and hollowed by waves—naturally evokes the archetype of a cave: hidden, enclosing, protective. The building invites entry as if into a hollow, then rises like stone, creating a sequential, ascending route whose viewing perspectives continually unfold.

△ View analysis

△ The atrium links all functions

△ Functional circulation diagram

Concealment: the ground floor acts as the building’s “foundation”—connected to the coastal promenade. Its semi-solid, semi-void massing nestles into the landscape, presenting a low-key, discreet presence.

Enclosure: the second level cantilevers toward the sea and opens at its southwest and northeast corners. The southwest corner houses an infinity pool that visually extends to the horizon; columns texture the space with stone-like tactility, while perforated ceiling lights emulate reef cavities and filter soft natural light—intensifying the cave-like bodily sensation. The northeast corner accommodates more private fitness spaces such as a gym and yoga studio.

Outlook: the third level is the viewing high point; its massing contracts inward with an aperture at the southeast corner framing views of the Xinghai Bay Bridge and urban seascape. The south-facing roof terrace—formed from the offset volumes—serves as an additional lookout, completing the transition “from cave to vista.”

The façade strategy combines honeycomb composite stone cladding with high-transparency insulated glass to reduce the perceived mass and increase visual potency. The beige stone panels are divided according to structural modules and parametrically arranged in a diamond pattern, simulating the fissured texture of weathered reef—a measured order infused with natural randomness. Glass volumes read like reef cavities, their interplay of solid and void reflecting the changing light and color of sea and sky.

△ Detail: triangular window façade

△  South elevation structural system — maximum cantilever 9.25 m

△Steel-concrete columns + H-section steel beams + concrete slabs + concrete foundations

△ South elevation

“Stone Prism” is grounded in Dalian’s “mountain-sea-city” configuration, and uses restrained, abstract volumes to assert a clear spatial stance between land and sea. Rather than passively slotting into the coastline, the project occupies the threshold between city and nature, between the everyday and the exceptional, offering a place that is approachable, habitable and shareable.

Upon completion it quickly becomes a destination for neighborhood walks and a modest civic node for the peninsula—one likely to host an expanding repertoire of communal life as Lingshui Bay develops.

Drawings

△ Site plan

△ Ground floor plan

△ Second floor plan

△ Third floor plan

△ East elevation

△ South elevation

△ West elevation

△ North elevation

△ Section 1

△ Section 2