MAD Architects, in collaboration with the China Academy of Building Research (CASR), have won an international competition for the design of the Cuntan International Cruise Centre in Chongqing, China. The project will see the transformation of a cargo terminal into a cruise terminal and city complex.
The project site is currently a 66,000-square-meter cargo terminal located in Chongqing’s Liangjiang New Area. With access to the Yangtze River, MAD Architects’ scheme will see the development of a 65,000-square-meter international cruise terminal and city complex, comprising a 15,000-square-meter cruise port and 50,000 square meters of commercial space.
According to MAD’s press release, the design team was inspired by the large orange gantry cranes that filled the freight terminal. ”These gantry cranes became living alien creatures that gave a sense of surrealism,” said MAD Architects Founder and Principal Partner Ma Yansong. “The new scheme is therefore not only about reflecting the industrial colors of the past but also about respecting this original surrealism. We have designed the elevated buildings as if they were a futuristic, free-walking city, seemingly arriving here from elsewhere, and perhaps traveling elsewhere once again someday.”
MAD’s plan will establish a 430-meter-long complex comprised of six separate and interconnected elevated buildings inspired by the gantry cranes, called the Yangtze River Skywalk. From a distance, the buildings will appear to rise and fall like that of the terminal cranes. Their elevated positions will also allow for unobstructed views of the river.
Beneath the “floating” building complex is the new Cruise Ship Landscape Park and Cruise Ship Hall. A new link between the adjacent Pier Park and the Century Cuntan Park will create 100,000 square meters of urban green space. This will allow the public to fully experience both the scenery of the city and the Yangtze.
The Cruise Centre Hub, underneath the Cruise Landscape Park, will provide access to the building complex and the ground-level landscape park. The design of the Cruise Centre includes skylights to enhance natural light within the interior space, which is balanced by an upper cantilevered building that blocks direct sunlight.
The Cuntan International Cruise Centre is part of a wider initiative called the Cuntan International New Town Master Plan and the Cruise Ship Home Port Area Urban Design, which was adopted in April 2021. The framework allocated a planned area of approximately six square kilometers for the Cuntan International New City. The plan aims to develop an “integrated ship, port, city, tourism, shopping, and entertainment” district.
“Chongqing has mountains and waters,” said Ma. “However, the Yangtze River is more than just a natural landscape in Chongqing. Because of human activities such as shipping traffic and industrial transport, this mountain city is also full of energy and movement. We want to transform this energy in Chongqing from traces of industry into an energy that stimulates the imagination. People can feel the kinetic energy of the city here but also imagine the public spaces of the future.”
Construction of the Cuntan International Cruise Center is expected to begin in November 2022 and be completed by 2027.
7 Comments
someone has been watching too many marvel movies.
They do Zaha almost as well as ZHA nowadays. That talk of forests and landscapes is just rubbish though - all marketing.
In the video, I love how they add a tweeting-bird sound when they are showing the ground level “park”, to drive home the illusion that they’ve engaged nature.
Why can’t these buildings relate to the ground plane in a natural, engaged way? They seem like alien spacecraft, touching down and extending forbidding-looking access ramps. It’s weird and off-putting to me.
I guess that's the point of the design? MAD built its reputation on space age looking builldings sitting in a verdant landscape.
I suppose so.
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