Artful grounds for an architectural masterpiece
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DETAILS

LocationNanjing, China
ClientNanjing Hexi New Town State-owned Assets Management Group Holdings Ltd.
Size13 acres/5.2 hectares

SWA was retained to design the landscape of this mixed-use development collaboratively with Zaha Hadid Architects. It contains performing arts, hotel, residential, office and retail functions. Located adjacent to SWA’s Nanjing Youth Olympic Park, the design strives to merge architecture, the park landscape, and people at this iconic focal point. Landforms and landscape act as extensions of the buildings into the park landscape while providing a simple canvas for the dramatic architecture. The performing arts function spills outdoors into a small amphitheater overlooking a sunken retail courtyard. Lighting creates vibrancy in order to reinforce the Youth Cultural Centre as a public destination at night. Sustainable efforts included material re-use, water harvesting, and water quality and stormwater management initiatives. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat honored this complex with three design awards in 2018.

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