Comfortably perched at the eastern end of a green corridor in Chengdu’s Tianfu New District, TIANFU ONE Exhibition Gallery enjoys panoramic views of the Luxihe wetland park just across the road. LWK + PARTNERS leveraged its proximity to both urban life and natural greenery to craft an observation deck culminating at the end of the city’s main artery.

The project design is guided by a discreet respect for the local landscape, producing a circulation plan that is aligned with the city’s axis, landmarks and vegetation pattern. Such a treatment by LWK + PARTNERS not only promotes the project’s function as a public facility but transformed a tricky height difference of the site into an architectural feature.

As hilly terrain is uncommon in Chengdu, LWK + PARTNERS took effort to highlight and make the most of the slope by having the building double as an elevated viewpoint. Connection with the city starts all the way from the urban green corridor to its rooftop observation deck that looks upon the city and park. A glazed exhibition hall reveals beneath the deck, forming the crux of the project that is penetrated by natural light and elevated by hefty pillars to command a flexible hollow space underneath. This creates a rich spatial experience for visitors and strengthens the connection with the rest of the city through opening up a common surface at grade, facilitating interaction and interrelationship between people, architecture, the environment and the city.

The project appears to glide over a body of water overlooking the city and the wetland park, adding a futuristic touch to the local environment. It invites a host of visual perspectives featuring diverse backdrops for the iconic V-shaped architecture. At a distance, visitors from the city would see it as a tip of the park while those from the park will see it as an outcrop from the hillside.

After retiring from its initial function as a sales gallery, the project will serve as an exhibition gallery for urban planning, offering indoor recreational-educational space among verdant greenery for the public.