The design for a new commercial campus in south Beijing embraces the key existing site opportunities, including generous green space provision, accessible public realm, formal urban fabric and site orientation, to deliver a world-class office and retail park. Arranged around a central axial Urban Meadow the campus creates a memorable sense of place, stitching together the existing urban fabric and establishing a vibrant new public realm and retail streetscape.  The collection of public plazas at ground level are echoed as semi-private gardens and terraces up the height of the buildings, creating an overall greenspace amenity for all people working within and visiting the development.

The campus comprises a collection of 8 buildings, including a landmark tower and iconic retail pavilion.  Each of the buildings are individually sculpted to provide a unique address for prospective buyers and tenants, providing “Class A” office space with 9-13.5m leasespans and 1,000-2,300m² floor plates, designed to accommodate a variety of multi-tenant scenarios.

The conceptual design for the development focuses on the history of Chinese furniture design, craftsmanship and attention to detail.   These ideas are coupled with the dynamic interlocking qualities of pinwheels and 3-dimensional Chinese puzzles to create a collection of individual buildings that each possess a sense of movement, are memorable and identifiable and yet are constructed from a collection of standardised elemental parts.  Chinese screen designs are also referenced to weave the landscape, lobby and terrace design together in a simple yet dramatic way.

Sustainable design principles optimise the site orientation to reduce the extent of east and west facing facades, use building massing to provide natural sun-shading and utilises the low-rise roofscapes to collect solar energy.  In addition, bioswales and green roofs reduce the heat island effect and allow for storm water retention.  Natural ventilation and a high performance exterior wall serve to reduce energy needs and ground source heat pumps are proposed to reduce heating and cooling costs and energy consumption.