Archinect - News

UNStudio designs a new four tower mixed-use scheme in Hangzhou, China

2024-01-03T13:10:00-05:00

UNStudio released renderings of its newly commissioned mixed-use design at the site of the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre in China. The Hiwell Amber Centre project was announced in October 2023 and will be built on a site located in the heart of Hangzhou’s new city center, Qianjiang Century City.

In homage to the local craft traditions of the region, UNStudio says they’ve designed the four-tower scheme to evoke a woven tapestry topping an expansive ‘Urban Living Room’ around and beneath it. Each 459-foot (140m) tower’s facade features a sweeping glass curtain wall tapering down parametrically to a shared plinth base.

The scheme calls for a mixed Andaz Hotel/office component, another office tower, and two shorter additional residential towers. An art museum, conference center, and hotel ballroom complete the design.

Image courtesy of UNStudio.

Principal Ben van Berkel says: “The architecture of the towers creates an effect of timeless simplicity. Within Hangzhou’s landmark-heavy sk...

Foster + Partners designs Hangzhou master plan along a central ‘leafy spine’

2023-11-01T17:22:00-04:00

Foster + Partners has unveiled its design for a new master-planned center for the Chinese city of Hangzhou. Organized around a central landscaped axis, the master plan is described by the firm as a “green and interconnected mixed-use quarter.”

Image credit: Foster + Partners

The central axis is intended as a “leafy spine” guiding visitors through the district, bookended at each end by green space. While the north end holds a public park, a wetland in the south is connected to a new cultural hub.

Image credit: Foster + Partners

The axis itself holds several cultural centers, including a public library, exhibition hall, and galleries. Massing gradually steps up towards the axis, creating a defined skyline while seeking to “respect the site’s natural surroundings” as well. The density also increases around public transport hubs to encourage public transit use.

Image credit: Foster + Partners

“The master plan is organized around a 2.5-kilometer central axis that runs the full length of th...

New construction updates on Zaha Hadid Architects' pedestrian bridge project in Hangzhou, China

2023-07-28T13:34:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has shared a new video detailing the construction progress of its pedestrian bridge project over the Grand Canal in Hangzhou, China.

Concrete arches are now in place for the bridge, which is located not far from the site of the firm’s recently announced multivenue sports complex. The design connects with the larger ‘Seamless City’ masterplan, which is underway on both sides of the city’s Qiantang River.

A video of the bridge’s progress can be viewed below courtesy of Hangzhou CBD Development Group.

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A post shared by Zaha Hadid Architects (@zahahadidarchitects)

The firm shares: “The new 320m pedestrian bridge defines the Grand Canal’s southern gateway on the Qiantang River, marking the start of the canal’s journey 1776 km north to Beijing. China’s most historic man-made waterway, some sections of the Grand Canal date back to the 5th century BC.”

This city playground is designed in the shape of the Chinese character for horse

2023-05-31T12:10:00-04:00

Shanghai-based firm 100 Architects has designed a playground in Hangzhou driven by the shape of the Chinese character Mă (马), which means horse.

Graphic © 100architects

Called Mă Way, the park is the latest in a series of projects by the firm that revolve around the concept of the horse for regular client, Dong Yuan. It was developed at the site of a newly built residential development in the city.

Image © RexZou

The architects started by laying out the character Mă in monochromatic, aquamarine green and then constructing the playground around it. The color and shape allow it to be visible and readable from all of the surrounding residential towers.

Image © RexZou

The character’s calligraphic stroke makes it suitable for providing a path or “Way” for fun activities and social interactions. The negative space surrounding the path features pocket plazas for leisure, sports areas, and floor games for all ages.

Image © RexZou

The independent stroke in the character takes the form of a v...

Zaha Hadid Architects designs 'stratified, geological' sports complex in Hangzhou, China

2022-10-27T11:58:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled their competition-winning design for the Hangzhou International Sports Center in China. The complex will be anchored by a 60,000-seat football stadium, while also holding a 19,000-seat indoor arena, an aquatics center with two 164-foot-long pools, and practice pitches.

Image credit: Brick Visual

The 1.45 million-square-foot stadium is connected to the indoor arena and aquatics center via a central podium. Inspired by tea farms on Hangzhou’s surrounding hillsides, the weaving, terracing podium also houses the sport center’s ancillary facilities including training and fitness halls, locker rooms, shops, offices, restaurants, and cafes.

Image credit: Plomp

The louvered façade of the main stadium seeks to become more porous than traditional solid stadiums, while the configuration of the seating bowl aims to bring spectators “as close as possible” to the field of play, creating what the design team calls an “intense matchday atmosphere for players on the ...

BIG unveils infinity loop headquarters in Hangzhou, China

2021-04-20T10:53:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled their design for the new R+D headquarters of OPPO, the largest smartphone manufacturer in China. Named the O-Tower, the scheme seeks to reflect the company’s ethos of “endless innovation in the pursuit of perfection” and serve as an iconic gateway to Hangzhou’s Future Sci-Tech City.

The O-Tower. Image: IMIGO and BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

Colloquially known as “Heaven on Earth”, the city of Hangzhou has a dual identity as both a hub for innovation, and a center of rich cultural and natural history, hosting three of the world’s 57 UNESCO Heritage sites. The O-Tower sits at an intersection of these two conditions, flanked by a natural lake, a 10,000 square-meter park, and a high-rise urban center.

The O-Tower. Image: BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

The scheme’s signature massing is shaped in response to the unique needs of contemporary tech companies. While deep, flexible floorplates are desirable by tech companies for accommodating more creative, var...

Henning Larsen completes crystalline Opera in Hangzhou, China

2019-07-15T14:40:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has completed work on a new 750,000-square-foot opera house and cultural center in Hangzhou, China.

The opera-in-the-park-style complex is wrapped by a fractured metal panel and glass facade designed to reference the cracked ice that forms during the winter months along the surface of a lake adjacent to the complex. The opera is filled with a collection of performance and exhibition spaces, including a 1,400-seat concert hall with raked seating and a 500-seat black-box performance venue.

View of the new opera house at dusk. Image courtesy of Philippe Rualt.

In section, the complex is arranged as a trio of canted volumes organized on either side of a central elevated plaza. The plaza is designed to hold up to 10,000 people and can be used even when the multi-functional cultural center is closed down, according to a project press release. The arrangement is meant to allow the building to "dissolve into the city" while also allowing the complex to act as a large public ...

Construction begins for OMA's Xinhu Hangzhou Prism, “a pinnacle reaching into the sky”

2019-03-12T10:17:00-04:00

Groundbreaking has taken place for OMA's Xinhu Hangzhou Prism, a 50,000m2 mixed-use building in Hangzhou, which is quickly developing into one of China's major tech hubs. With OMA's Chris van Duijn and Michalis Hadjistyllis as project leads, The Prism will be located in Hangzhou’s Future Tech City in the new Technology Central Business District. The project is currently expected to be complete in 2020.

Image by Bloomimages, Courtesy of OMA.

According to OMA, the Prism is “a pinnacle reaching into the sky” whose design was inspired by an ancient saying that there is “paradise above, and Hangzhou below”. The pyramid-shaped complex comprises two radical oblique cuts through the building envelope, which create terraced lofts that offer scenic views of the city. A hotel, retail spaces, and atrium garden will also be located inside the complex, and a large interior void will make room for a public garden with water features and playgrounds. A 35,000m2 residential tower will be built adjace...

SOM's new Hangzhou Wangchao Center features an impressive curved silhouette

2018-04-09T15:52:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill just revealed designs for a new mixed-use skyscraper in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, a rapidly growing metropolis with a population of nearly 10 million and host of the Asian Games in 2022.

The 280-meter-tall, 54-story Hangzhou Wangchao Center makes a strong first impression with its curved facade lines—merging the engineering feat of eight flowing mega-columns with architectural formal expression.

Completion is scheduled for 2021.

Here's more information about the tower from SOM:

"The Hangzhou Wangchao Center will serve as a gateway to the newly planned Qianjang Century Town in Hangzhou. It will add 125,000 square meters of office, hotel, and retail programming to the rapidly expanding region. The tower is directly adjacent to one of the city’s new subway stations, and is accessible from a major roadway."

"The tower's expressive silhouette is the result of an integrated
architectural and engineering solut...

UNStudio's Raffles City Hangzhou is an all-in-one destination for living, working, and leisure

2017-09-19T15:48:00-04:00

Dutch firm, UNStudio, has completed their largest single building to date—the new Raffles City mixed-use development described by the firm as "a sustainable urban hub for living, working and leisure." Back in 2009, the firm opened their Shanghai office to oversee the complex's design and construction.

Conceived as a vertical city, the structure occupies almost 400,000 square meters of space and will offer a rich mix of 24/7 functions. The two streamlined, 250-meter tall towers house residential units, Grade A offices, the Conrad Hotel and a rooftop helipad. The six-story podium and plaza, which has direct underground connection to the metro, offer retail, restaurants, leisure facilities and parking.

The design is representative of the distinctive, sinuous style the firm has become known for. The pair of winding towers, featuring an outer layer of rotated, vertical solar shading fins, placed atop the curtain wall system, starts calmly at t...

The Giant Chinese Odor Dome, and Other Sad Ideas for Surviving Our Future Cities

2014-06-02T14:15:00-04:00

In an effort to remediate a large patch of heavily contaminated soil in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, engineers managed to unleash a smell so pungent that, last week, owners of the site took a new tactic: a giant tent to contain it all. [...] Though the 20,000-square-meter polyester tent contains an area roughly the size of three football fields and rises 36 meters near downtown, it only covers less than half of the contaminated area.

Previously: Giant bubbles could be 'built over Beijing parks to save residents from smog danger'

Hangzhou Gateway by JDS

2011-06-13T16:21:00-04:00

JDS/Julien De Smedt Architects has shared with us the proposal for a mixed-use development in Hangzhou, China which recently won the Belgian firm the First Prize in the invited competition. The design team also included engineering firm China CUC.

MVRDV Wins Competition for China Comic and Animation Museum in Hangzhou

2011-05-06T19:23:00-04:00

Hangzhou urban planning bureau has announced Dutch firm MVRDV winner of the international design competition for the China Comic and Animation Museum (CCAM) in Hangzhou, China. MVRDV's winning design refers to the speech balloon: a series of eight balloon shaped volumes create an internally complex museum experience of in total 30,000m2. Part of the project is also a series of parks on islands, a public plaza and a 13,000m2 expo center.