Chicago-based global architecture firm Goettsch Partners (GP) recently announced the completion of its largest project in China to date: the China Resources Qianhai Center, a mixed-use complex in the Qianhai district of Shenzhen. Developed by CR Land, the project includes five towers totaling almost 472,000 square meters (4.6 million sf).
The overall development, which totals more than 500,000 square meters (5.4 million sf), comprises three office towers, a hotel tower, an apartment tower, and a terraced retail complex. GP designed the towers and co-developed the master plan with UK-based design firm Benoy, which also designed the retail complex.
To prioritize the pedestrian experience, the project team combined the original eight-parcel site into two larger blocks, unifying the development and minimizing vehicular traffic within the site. The five towers are arranged around the site’s perimeter to create an urban street wall while also opening the site’s interior for pedestrians. Inside this “financial canyon,” terraced levels reduce the scale of the urban streetscape and provide multiple options for social interaction. In addition, the pedestrian canyon’s lush landscape supports Shenzhen’s “sponge city” requirements to absorb rain and prevent flooding.
As one of the first developments within the recently created Qianhai district, the China Resources Qianhai Center supports a live-work environment to draw people to the neighborhood. The development also aims to project “a character of reserved elegance, quality, and permanence” to attract global finance companies, according to a press statement. As an example: The windows can open and close within the shadows of the building’s double-fin sunshades, reducing visual disruption and maintaining visual cohesion.
On the Building Team:
Owner/developer: China Resources Land Co., Ltd.
Design architects: Goettsch Partners and Benoy
Architect of record, MEP engineer of record, and structural engineer of record: Architectural Design and Research Institute of Guangdong
MEP design engineer: Meinhardt
Structural design engineer: WSP
Construction manager: China State Construction Engineering Corporation
China Resources Qianhai Center, Planning Animation (c) Goettsch Partners from Goettsch Partners on Vimeo.
Related Stories
Mixed-Use | Aug 30, 2017
Former industrial building becomes 'lifestyle community' in ever-evolving Baltimore
The new community offers 292 apartments with 20,000 sf of retail space.
Mixed-Use | Aug 30, 2017
A 50-acre waterfront redevelopment gets under way in Tampa
Nine architects, three interior designers, and nine contractors are involved in this $3 billion project.
Mixed-Use | Aug 18, 2017
Covington, Wash., greenlights a 214-acre mixed-use development
A peninsula will extend into the property’s 20-acre lake and contain retail shops, restaurants, a pavilion park, homes, and green space.
Mixed-Use | Aug 17, 2017
Manhattan’s Union Square gets its very own farmhouse
GrowNYC, a sustainability-focused nonprofit, commissioned ORE Design to create the community events center and learning space.
Mixed-Use | Aug 15, 2017
A golf course community converts into an agrihood with 1,150 homes and a working olive grove
The community will cover 300 acres in Palm Springs, Calif.
Mixed-Use | Aug 10, 2017
Mixed-use development includes University of California-San Diego campus extension
The 562,000-sf development was designed by Carrier Johnson + CULTURE and is located five blocks from the San Diego Padres’ Petco Park.
Mixed-Use | Aug 9, 2017
Mixed-use development will act as a gateway to Orange County’s ‘Little Saigon’
The development will include apartments, ground-floor retail, and a five-story hotel.
Mixed-Use | Aug 8, 2017
Dorte Mandrup’s 74,000-sm masterplan will be highlighted by an IKEA and BIG’s ‘Cacti’
The mixed-use development links a new IKEA store, a hotel, and housing with green space.
Mixed-Use | Aug 3, 2017
A sustainable mixed-use development springs from a Dutch city center like a green-fringed crystal formation
MVRDV and SDK Vastgoed won a competition to redevelop the inner city area around Deken van Someren Street in Eindhoven.
Mixed-Use | Aug 2, 2017
Redevelopment of Newark’s Bears Stadium site receives team of architects
Lotus Equity Group selected Michael Green Architecture, TEN Aquitectos, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, and Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners to work on the project.