With a strong focus on connecting the waterfront to the city, 10 DESIGN’s Zhuhai International Convention and Exhibition Centre Phase 2 was awarded Best Commercial Project at the prestigious READatChina Awards 2017. 

Zhuhai International CEC Phase 2 is strategically located at the Pearl River Estuary in China.  It is an anchor development within the Shizimen CBD set to expedite the transformation of the city into a financial hub.  The development, totaling 192,000 sqm of GFA, provides not only an additional world class convention facility supported by offices and retail spaces but also waterfront public spaces.  State owned Huafa Group anticipates construction completion of Phase 2 by 2020.  Phase 1 (opened in 2014) was also designed by Gordon Affleck and project directed by Miriam Auyeung. 

The award acknowledges pioneering projects that push commercial architecture into new and exciting directions and recognizes significant contributions to the urban realm in connection with commercial developments. 

Commenting on the award, Gordon Affleck, Design Partner at 10 DESIGN said, “The development is all about interaction and connection.  Huafa aspires to not only creating a civic statement but also designing a landmark that would be truly interactive with the populace. Convention facilities suffer from being inactive during event down times; therefore, we proposed a sculptural ribbon form (Urban Ribbon) which both physically and visually connects the waterfront to the city.”

Javier Perea, Project Lead at 10 DESIGN added “The Ribbon houses a series of public functions such as restaurants, retail, and cultural facilities that continually activate the main plaza and secondary garden areas. These public functions ensure a publicly activated link while at the same time screening the more private areas of the complex.  It also ensures that even when convention and exhibitions are being set up, there are always people moving through the plaza.”

The new convention facility  also extends the public space around the Ribbon using a series of elevated terraces that form a number of layered courtyards and informal gardens, serving both public and convention facilities.  On a civic and public level, the facility further provides an elevated public plaza view deck of around 8,500sqm which is activated by F&B functions.  This way, it provides a true public amenity to the city while greatly increasing the amount of accessible landscape space within the development.

Furthermore, the office twin towers of Phase 2 complete the vibrant waterfront, complementing and not competing with the 325m high Shizimen Iconic Tower in Phase 1, the focal point of the entire development.

Zhuhai International CEC Phase 2 addresses and balances the requirements of both the civic and public functions which in turn lead to a positive addition to both the urban and waterfront environment.

DESIGN TEAM

Gordon Affleck, Miriam Auyeung, Javier Perea, Wei Liu, Sonja Stoffels, Alexey Golbraykh, David Bachan, Javier Manjon, Alessandra Varonier, Daria Ristea, Alex Cozma, Jon Derrin, Shaun Mcleod, Alexander Li, Yan Liu, Emily Xiao