This project attempts to meet the challenges of unique site, one which is strategically located in the Southwest edge of ShaoXing’s historic city center. Three levels of commercial targets are preset in this formation: optimize the urban context, stimulate commercial activities, and maximize the  clients’  incoming  as  final result. As a guiding principle, how to  maximize  the  most valuable commercial interface by the public urban elements becomes the new design language. By creating a richly woven network of streets, paths, plazas, parks, gardens and terraces, this design assures that visitors will have a clear understanding of how to navigate their way  through  this  new  urban network. But the clarity of the design is also overlaid with a series of public spaces, each different but related to one  another.  Some  are small and intimately scaled, while others are more monumental and dramatic in their scale. Some public spaces are more urban, and use hard surfaces, while others are more pastoral, and are dominated by landscape features. In all cases, landscape elements play a role in shaping the public experience.

​

Because of the unusual shape, it is important that each part  of the design not only have integrity as a whole, but also its parts fit neatly with the qualities of the adjacent sites. To that end, segment of the project is conceived of as one of many pieces   in a puzzle. Each puzzle piece in the end must fit and interlock with its neighboring piece, and in the process create a beautiful picture. In this case, that final picture is the re-constituted plan  of Shaoxing’s southern district.

​

* Designed in Collaboration with Paul Lukez Architects