Xiang Architects has completed the Chenhu Migratory Bird Observation Tower on Xianglushan, a natural rise within Wuhan’s Chenhu Wetland. Rising 19.8 meters (65 feet), the structure twists upward in two interlocking staircases to give visitors separate routes for ascending and descending while opening changing views across rivers and surrounding marshlands extending around them. The site already sits around 22 meters above sea level, so the climb begins among the trees before gradually lifting above the canopy and out toward the wetland horizon.
The observation tower draws that transition across the full ascent. Twenty-four staggered platforms interrupt the two spiraling routes, each one turning the body toward another portion of the landscape. A view that begins near leaves and branches, alongside the steel frame, gradually expands with height. Instead of saving the landscape for a single platform at the top, Xiang Architects extends the act of looking across the climb, with each turn changing what enters the frame.
xiang architects completes a 19.8-meter observation tower in wuhan’s chenhu wetland | images ©
the double-helix stairs become the structure
The double helix also determines how the tower stands. Xiang Architects and structural designer AND Office developed an interlocking stair-support system that combines the stair flights with counter-rotating steel braces. Their opposing forces resist torsion without a conventional central core to leave a three-meter-wide opening running vertically through the structure. Seen from below, the void makes the overlapping stairs and braces legible as one continuous system.
The architects note that parametric modeling helped translate the geometry into 24 standardized modules that could be fabricated away from the wetland and assembled on site. The repetition gives a complex form a practical construction logic while reducing the amount of work taking place within the sensitive landscape. From inside, those repeated pieces create a dense field of diagonals that shifts with every step, sometimes framing the marsh beyond and sometimes pulling attention back toward the tower itself.
twin staircases twist in opposite directions around a three-meter open center
silver metal shifts with the wetland weather
A matte silver metal skin wraps the steel structure while keeping its edges open to air and views. Under gray skies, its surface takes on the pale tones of the wetland haze. Brighter conditions bring cooler reflections, while sunset draws warmer tones across the metal. Xiang Architects gives the tower a distinct presence on the hill, and the weather keeps changing how strongly its geometry reads against the landscape.
Chenhu Wetland becomes a winter habitat for more than 100,000 migratory birds each year between October and March. This gives the tower its wider purpose as an observation point. Its most engaging move happens before visitors reach the highest platform. By separating the two directions of travel and inserting viewing places throughout the climb, the architecture turns circulation itself into a way of scanning the wetland, one changing frame at a time.
the tower rises from Xianglushan, a natural high point within Chenhu Wetland
twenty-four staggered platforms introduce changing views throughout the ascent
counter-rotating steel braces help the open structure resist torsion
parametric modeling rationalizes the complex geometry into 24 standardized modules
a matte silver metal skin wraps the steel structure while keeping its edges open to air and views
prefabricated components were assembled on site within the wetland landscape
project info:
project name: Chenhu Migratory Bird Observation Tower
architects: Xiang Architects
location: Tonghu Town, Caidian District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
height: 19.8 meters (65 feet)
completion: 2026
photography: © Hao Chen, © mumu
principal architect: Xiang Nan
project architect: Qin Chuan
structural design: Zhang Zhun, Xu Yue / AND Office
steel structure, curtain wall: Zhou Jia, Cheng Weiting, Liang Zhe, Wu Shiwei, Lin Yao, Zhou Xing, Xin Hongqing, Wu Guo / RoboticPlus.AI
lighting design: Xiang Architects
client: Wuhan Urban Construction Investment Group Co., Ltd.
cooperating institutions: Wuhan Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute; Wuhan Yucheng Construction Group Co., Ltd.
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