Architecture firm Goettsch Partners have recently won the design competition for a new eight-building complex in the Pudong area of Shanghai. The 244,500 square meter site is one of the last underdeveloped parcels in the area. The Shanghai Lujiazui Roncheng Changyi Project features two office towers, five residential towers, and a cultural/office building. The development also includes retail spaces and various amenities. Construction is scheduled to start in December 2022 and completion is anticipated in December 2025.
The towers are designed to offer outdoor terraces for tenants and residents while providing unobstructed views toward the Huangpu River and the Pudong and Puxi skylines. An elevated pedestrian platform connects the bases of all towers. This organically shaped platform aims to soften the image of the buildings and provides an expansive landscaped surface. Termed the “Cloud Garden,” the platform offers continuous shade and weather protection for the ground plane and directly links to the lower-level subway stations adjacent to the site. It also helps to define the identity of the new neighborhood district.
We believe that different types of activity can, and often must, exist on multiple levels. The Cloud Garden idea allowed us to lift the more serene and private programs above the active street level that caters to the dynamic commercial activities in a sustainable manner. - Paul De Santis, LEED AP, design partner at Goettsch Partners.
In response to the context, the tower volumes are reduced in height in the northern part of the site, where they are bordered by existing residential buildings. The development also offers shared programmatic elements, like the kindergarten and community-based venues along this edge. The character of the buildings is softer in this area, with the undulating facades giving way to the openings in the buildings. The result encourages neighbors to enter the development under and through the Cloud Garden. Te warn-toned materials and landscape pedestrian avenues also contribute to creating a connection to the surrounding neighborhoods.
Goettsch Partners is an international architecture office based in Chicago with offices in Denver and Shanghai. They have recently revealed the design for a new 34-story residential building adjacent to Nashville Yards in Tennessee, US, and a central gathering hub and landmark tower in Guangzhou, China.
