Heatherwick Studio has updated the new Xi’an Centre Culture Business District upon its first public opening after sharing details of the project with Archinect last November.
The development occupies space between the ruins of the Temple of Heaven and the famed Shaanxi TV Tower. Central to its design is the artistic heritage of ceramics in the region. A nod to the historical presence of the Terracotta Army can be seen in the exterior tiled cladding on each of its buildings’ facades.
This confers an inviting tactile impression that will further lure its users. The studio’s founder, Thomas Heatherwick, says it also results in an "unexpected three-dimensional urban landscape" equalling 155,000 square meters (or more than 1.6 million square feet).
Within its pedestrian-centric "sensory experience" comprised of a retail podium, offices, a hotel, and apartments, activity converges around a central plaza with a 187-foot high vertical park space called the Xi'an Tree. The park is outfitted with 56 'petal' terraces, the widths of each representing the seven biomes crossed by the ancient Silk Road, whose eastern terminus was Xi'an.
Gauged in the human scale to provide three differing perspectives when taken in from city, street, or door levels, the design for the district obscures its different programmatic uses via a cascading variety of roof heights and 'three-dimensional' vertical interpolation of the existing urban grid system.
Mat Cash, a partner and group leader with Heatherwick Studio, says of their intentions: "Super large-scale developments are being built all over the world to satisfy rapidly urbanising populations. By their very nature they are often overbearing, singular and devoid of character– they do nothing for people they are meant to serve. As a counterpoint, we wanted to infuse our project in Xi’an with the spirit, variety, and texture that happens naturally in cities over time."
Heatherwick adds that it was his personal goal for the project to "find a joyful and contemporary way to respond to the history of Xi’an, and bring people together."
The project was also described in terms of Ancient Greek agora as a socializing space more so than an elevation of the shopping experience. It follows the completion of the Azabudai Hills mixed-use district in Tokyo last year.
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