Raffle City Hangzhou : Discover One Of China's Most Futuristic Skyscrapers
Dutch firm UNStudio has completed a mixed-use development in the Chinese city of Hangzhou that accommodates a hotel, offices, apartments and shops, within a pair of sinuous towers connected by a podium and landscaped plaza.
Raffles City Hangzhou was designed by UNStudio for real estate company CapitaLand. Described by the studio as a sustainable urban hub for living, working and leisure, the huge complex is located in the city's Qianjiang New Town area.
The development forms a prominent landmark in Hangzhou's new central business district, with a total area of almost 400,000 square metres spread across the two 250-metre towers, the podium building and the surrounding plaza.
The project is the largest single building completed by UNStudio, which is headed by architect Ben van Berkel. The studio even opened a new Shanghai office, in 2009, to oversee its design and construction.
Raffles City Hangzhou will be a point of confluence, claimed Van Berkel, a hub for business conduct and a new destination for visitors and residents alike; an all-in-one destination for working, living and leisure in a highly sustainable environment.
The project's completion follows the opening of a shopping centre that UNStudio designed in Shanghai, which is covered in an intricate grid of diamond-shaped perforations.
The development in Hangzhou is informed by the firm's focus on a concept it calls Superliving, which involves mixing different programmes in efficient structures that enhance the urban experience for residents and visitors.
The project team described the complex as a lively vertical neighbourhood and transit hub that accommodates all kinds of activities in a dense and considered arrangement of spaces.
Besides working and living at Raffles City, people can stay at the hotel, or pick up groceries, enjoy a meal, do exercise, watch a movie or even get married there, all-in-one interconnected environment, the firm added.
The two 60-storey high-rises contain apartments, offices, the Conrad Hotel and a rooftop helipad, all with views towards the Qiantang River and the city's historic West Lake district.
The six-storey podium contains shop units, restaurants, leisure facilities, parking and a direct connection to the metro transportation system, with a main entrance on a corner facing the adjacent park and city centre.
The twisting forms, which are not identical but complement each other, promote a visual dialogue between the distinctly urban context in one direction and green, landscaped areas nearby.
Positioned on opposite corners, each tower consists of an 'urban facade' that frames the urban corner of the site, and a horizontally articulated 'landscape facade' that descends into the inner courtyards at podium level, UNStudio explained.
A skylight that covers the atrium frames views of the towers from anywhere in this area, and ensures natural light penetrates deep into the building through the two voids.
UNStudio's other recent projects in Asia include the transformation of two urban blocks in Daegu, South Korea, which involved adding digitally designed patterns to the facades of more than 20 skyscrapers.
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Shijiazhuang
Shijiazhuang, formerly romanized Shihkiachwang, is the capital and largest city of North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about 263 kilometres southwest of Beijing, and it administers 8 districts, 2 county-level cities, and 12 counties.
At the 2013 census, it had a total population of 12,763,700, with 4,303,700 in the central area comprising the 7 districts and the county of Zhengding largely conurbated with the Shijiazhuang metropolitan area as urbanization continues to proliferate. Shijiazhuang's total population ranked twelfth in mainland China.
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