The undulating lines give the building a sense of flow.

Hangzhou Longhu Zijinggang Tianjie

01

 Project background 

The shopping center is located on the banks of Wulitang River in Xihu District, Hangzhou, with overlapping space design. It combines with the important essence of Hangzhou traditional Hui-style Architecture - Be elegant, concise and full of cultural connotation.

The building takes the theme of healthy and leisure life, fitness, children's amusement and cinema as the main formats, in order to establish a comfortable and convenient community-based commercial and office community. The layout starts from the conditions and advantages and disadvantages of land use, so that the overall building arrangement is regular and orderly. With Gudun Road in the east as the main urban interface and Fujin Road in the center as the commercial backbone, the centralized commerce in the north plot is arranged, and the commercial street in the south plot is combined to form a community commercial atmosphere.

02

 Design features 

Design of commercial facade aims at creating the characteristics of the project. Traditional architectural elements are interpreted through modern forms by using Hangzhou history and culture to form a community commercial space. The simple and changeable lines of Hangzhou and Hui-style traditional buildings, together with the cultural landscape along the Wulitang River, form the design inspiration of the facade. The traditional sloping roof is deduced by modern arc, forming a curved roof with high bottom like waves, which makes the whole project present unique unity on the facade.

03

 Facade design 

There are three design features of the project: facade at main entrance, all-glass window facade and grille facade.

1、Facade at main entrance

Three main entrances of the project are distributed in the southwest, southeast and northeast of the shopping center. Combined with the architectural body and functional requirements, in the architectural scheme, the concave and empty techniques are skillfully used to form three unified and distinctive main entrances.

The overall glass facade should be the form of bright in horizontal direction and hiding in vertical direction. For glasses used on more than two floors, ultra clear laminated (external) tempered insulating glass shall be used to meet the safety regulations of local codes for crowded entrances and exits. Ultra clear glass can effectively reduce the self-explosion rate of glass, increase the permeability of glass, and highlight the commercial display function of buildings.

△Perspective at southeast entrance

△ Node Figure

△Perspective at northeast entrance

△Node Figure

△Perspective at southwest entrance

△Node Figure

2、All-glass window facade

Windows: Ultra clear tempered laminated glass shall be used for panels and glass ribs in order to further enhance the permeability and reduce the impact of facade on commercial display. Compared with ordinary glass, the laminated glass has more reliable safety performance, and will not fall off after self-explosion or crushing, which can ensure the safety of pedestrians or articles under the building within a certain period of time.

△Reality images of all-glass window facade

△Node Figure

3、Grille facade

Grille is a common facade element in architecture. Combination of grille and other facade can enrich facade elements, increase facade virtual and real feeling and improve facade display effect. Grills at northeast entrance extends from the facade to the roof, highlighting the display of the main entrance of the building and forming the general form of the building.

△Reality images of grills

△Node Figure

04

 Epilogue 

Established in 1991, MIPIM AWARDS is the summit with largest scale in the global real estate industry. Together with the Pritzker Architecture Prize, they have become two pearls in the crown of the world architecture field, and is known as "Oscar in the real estate industry". Each year, MIPIM attracts more than 100 countries and thousands of projects around the world for carrying out fierce competition. The Award aims to show the public the development trend of different formats in the global real estate industry.

There are two streets in the west of the city (Longhu Zijing Street + Longhu Xixi Street), which is unique in the whole city of Hangzhou. With the talents of the designer, the community-type commercial space is treated reasonably, so that the aesthetic and consumption concepts of the times can reach the most harmonious unity in function. FORCITIS integrates low-key color materials and simple texture into the design of the facade of the project, and reflects the spatial effect that designers should always show in the facade design in the form of dislocation and superposition, showing the charm of Canal Towns in South of the Yangtze.

（Picture source: LWK + PARTNERS）