BIG has unveiled its design for AI CITY, the future home for Terminus Group, a smart service provider. Imagined as the new center of innovation for China, the project will be dedicated to "artificial intelligence, robotics, networking, and big data”. Located in Chongqing, in southwest China, known as the “mountain city”, the project is set within the Chongqing Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone.
The hi-tech campus AI CITY will house the headquarters of the world-leading smart service provider shaping the next generation of technology and cities, Terminus Group. The first phase of the master plan consists of a 75,000m2 Cloud Valley, “conceived as two plots along Xinzhou Avenue and Gaoxin Avenue that mimic each other's opposites”. In fact, BIG's proposal draws inspiration from the surrounding landscape.
In AI CITY, Cloud Valley is envisioned as a city where people, technology, and nature thrive together – with spaces designed for all types of life: human life, plant life, animal life, and even artificial life. -- Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.
“There is the Mountain, which forms a striking landmark in the area that gives shelter to a protected network of courtyards filled with inviting public functions. Then there is the Valley, which offers the largest publicly accessible green rooftops in China for open-air events”. Open to the public below the roof, the neighborhood is invited to the premises.
One of the most important components, the roofscape allows for an abundance of nature to co-exist with the office programs, as well as “embodying an ecological cohesive coexistence between human, nature, climate, and technology”. In fact, the green roof turns into the largest digital display in China at night. Moreover, the roof lush garden can be accessed from the central courtyard mainly. With a façade more transparent than usual, further extensions of the rooftop protect the facades and exterior public spaces from sun radiation and heavy rain.
Fostering technology companies that aim to advance the future of artificial intelligence and robotics, AI CITY will build the foundations of a new sustainable development, where barriers between nature, buildings, and AI will be removed. Generous green courtyards with natural light and ventilation will host specific public activities, while Sports events, art exhibitions, and product fairs will take place in the technological park spread between the buildings. On another hand, newly created spaces including AI exhibition spaces, markets, and cafés will invite the public to join under the roof. “Throughout AI CITY, e-bikes, robotic vehicles, and self-driving cars will define a new, smart mobility system”.
AI CITY
- Name: AI CITY
- Size: 135,000m2
- Location: Chongqing, China
- Client: Terminus Group
- Collaborators: LDI: Huiting; Green Building Consultant: CMCU; Facade consultant: Forster; Structure Consultant: BIG E
- Design firm: BIG – BJARKE INGELS GROUP (www.big.dk)
- Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Jakob Lange, Ole Elkjær Larsen
- Project Leaders: Per Bo Madsen, Nanna Gyldeholm Møller, Dominic James Black, Gabrielle Nadeau, Dora Jiabao Lin, Enea Michelesio
- Team: Biqin Li, Yara Rahme, Natchaluck Radomsittipat, Ipek Akin, Linnea Lujak, Laura Wätte, Peter Mortensen, Sergiu Calacean, Mattia Di Carlo, Høgni Laksafoss, Jan Magasanik, Eddie Can, Annette Jensen, Mussa Algasra, Marcela Dominika Rydalska, Laurent De Carniere, Cheng-Huang Lin, Nandi Lu, Henrik Jacobsen, Seda Yildiz, Lucas Coelho Netto, Marah Wagner, Vladislav Saprunenko, Jean-Sébastien Pagnon, Dimitrie Grigorescu, Alexander Matthias Jacobson, Kamila Abbiazova, Katrine Juul, Ella Murphy, Tore Banke, Cristian Teodor Fratila, Frederic Lucien Engasser, Ulla Hornsyld, Paul Johann Kohlhaussen, Eric Li, Erik Kreider, Karolina Lepa-Stewart, Tristan Harvey, Miles Treacy, Timo Harboe Nielsen, Andy Coward, Qingfeng Li, Milan Moldenhawer, Mamak Mazaheri, Daniel Ferrara Bilesky, Jesper Petersen
