KPF breaks ground on West Lake 66 mixed-use development in Hangzhou

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) has officially broken ground on West Lake 66 in Hangzhou, China. The project will form a new elevated green pedestrian link between West Lake and the Grand Canal, two of Hangzhou’s essential landmarks.

The 194,000-sm project includes five office towers with space suited to technology startups and young professionals, a boutique hotel, public parks, and an active, mixed-use podium. KPF parametrically linked shadow impacts, visibility from streets, unobstructed views, maximized daylight, and other key factors in an algorithm that organized optimal massing along the greenway to determine the position of the buildings and the overall site organization.

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The buildings’ facades optimize daylight while the overall project was designed with a modular, fluid porosity that reflects the material heritage of the city and its craftspeople using local materials like terracotta, stone, and wood.

The podium is designed in sinuous bands of rectangular cells, each one responding to the program within, that tie the site together. The cells can be updated over the lifespan of the building. The podium also stacks a mix of uses to form a layered program that ensures future flexibility. Office space opens to a green roof that spans the length of the podium to create a public sky park.