Designed by Chengdu Urban Design Research Center, the “Southern Island of Creativity” is the start-up phase land of the Eastern New Town which endeavors to develop creative industry and is one of the 13 strategic function zones of future Chengdu, China. The Eastern New Town consists of three “Islands” based on their varied topography. The southern one is located in hallow hills, which stands adjacent to the art village which came into being spontaneously. The design team for this project consisted of architects Liu Gang, Zhang Yang, Yu Jia, Lan Mi, and Xu Xin. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The topography is a strong identity of this district especially in the plain city of Chengdu. It directly leads to the design outcome: the huge fall of space density between the inner part and surroundings emphasizes the morphology of an “urban island”; the topography identity is also regarded as the carrier for diverse functions (mall, retail, museum, workshop, office, hotel, residence etc.) and diverse activities such as shopping, exhibition, salon and leisure. Based on these concepts the design focuses on the following key points:
- The edge of the “island” which forms the border and splits the whole district into high and low density areas. - The humanized consideration of the annex of the “edge” buildings. - The chain of vitality goes through the whole island, and the diverse characteristics and space identities of each part of this “chain” are considered based upon the specific locations, functions, transportation system and topography including the urban lobby, sky street, and network of creativity.
The urban island is the central part of the island which acts as the key node of central axis that connects the other two islands. It also includes a large open space for public on the ground and a transportation stop and interchange underneath with central tall buildings for international companies of creativity.
Different layers of the “sky street” are containers for diverse activities such as shopping, refreshments, art exhibition and driving based upon the topography. The sequence of diverse building scale and connections introduce a rich, comfortable and continuous experience.
Rather than creating big buildings such as museums, which is usual in many Chinese cities, we propose to introduce a sequence and network of creative industry facilities which make up the central museum, portal museums, block facilities, and the small.
Below is a video animation of their recently accomplished urban design project.
