“North·Yard,” the first phase of the large-scale technology innovation office campus “West Mountain Innovation Valley,” designed by CAA architects at the foot of Beijing’s Western Hills, has recently been completed.

“West Mountain Innovation Valley | Beijing Collaborative Innovation Park” is nestled at the foot of Beijing’s Western Hills. It covers approximately 12 hectares with a total GFA of around 288,000 sqm. Liu Haowei and his team CAA architects have been responsible for the project’s master planning and architectural design since 2020. Located adjacent to Beijing’s historic Three Hills and Five Gardens and positioned within the northern expansion zone of Beijing Zhongguancun, the project has been recognized as one of Beijing’s 100 Key Science and Technology Innovation Projects.

Rooted in Liu Haowei’s concept of Oriental Futurism, CAA uses “Shanshui Valley (valley of mountains and waters)” as a design axis, assigning distinct identities to the three plots: “West·Mountain,” “North·Yard,” and “East·Creek.”

“North·Yard,” the largest plot of West Mountain Innovation Valley, covering a total GFA of ap-proximately 111,000 sqm. CAA combines traditional Chinese courtyard layouts with natural land-scape imagery, balancing the concept of an enclosed courtyard and the overlapping mountain ranges. This culminates in the design concept of ‘Mountain Courtyard.’

Mountain-shaped towers rise from the ground, while the podium like a "cloud ring," encircles the mountains. Together, they construct an enclosed parallel space, engage in a dialogue with the Western Hills. Based on the harmonious concept of oriental philosophy, it integrates traditional imagery with the future, jointly creating a futuristic oriental romance with mountains, river valleys, and courtyards.

The towers’ terraced setbacks, elevated podiums and roof gardens, ground-level aerial bridges, and fluid staircases in the sunken plaza leading directly to the underground parking collectively form a multi-dimensional pedestrian system with fluid spatiality and rich layering. This design achieves pedestrian-vehicle separation while generating numerous unexpected in-between spaces, inte-grating seamlessly with the natural environment both inside and beyond the site, from above ground to below.

Interwoven multi-level natural landscapes create a vertical city garden in “North·Yard”, achieving an actual greening rate of 40%. It engages in an endless dialogue with the natural and cultural land-scapes of the Western Hills and Fragrant Hills.

CAA has established a comprehensive green sustainability system for “North·Yard,” which incorpo-rates a series of sustainable strategies and technologies, including green wind air-flow, utilization of the chimney effect, mitigation of the heat island effect, noise control, rainwater collection, and soil and water conservation. Together, these measures enable the project to be certified by the China Green Building Council (CGBC) with the highest three-star qualification.

From mountain-shaped towers to the cloud-ring podium, from sunken plaza to the sky garden, “North·Yard” embodies CAA’s design philosophy of “Oriental Futurism” in contemporary Chinese architecture.

Here, "nature" is no longer the opposite of technology but the dwelling place of human creativity's essence. "Future" is no longer just a technical proposition, but an oriental poem deeply rooted in cultural heritage.