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Huahong Metropolitan Center
Huahong Metropolitan Center
Hangzhou, China
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Other Projects by MUDO Architects
Huahong Metropolitan Center
Hangzhou, China
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2024
SIZE
500,000 sqft - 1,000,000 sqft
BUDGET
$50M - 100M
From a "Decade-long Unfinished Building" to a "Vertical Garden Tower"
Project Background
The project (formerly known as Wanyu Tower) is located in the “Qianjiang Century City” area of Hangzhou, boasting a superior geographical location surrounded by apartments and office buildings. However, the construction was forced to suspend in 2014 after the original developer went bankrupt, despite having completed the basic structure. During the years of stagnation, with the completion of main Asian Games stadium, countless new buildings were built nearby, and form the new CBD of Xiaoshan District. This unfinished building, however, stood out like an unsightly scar of the city, lonely and out of place at a bustling intersection, clashing with the vibrant life all around it. It unfortunately listed as "China's Top Ten Unfinished Buildings" multiple times.
Renovation Opportunity
Transforming the unfinished building from one that people "steer clear of" to one that they "flock to" in only one and half year.
Renovation of an unfinished building requires balancing various demands in terms of planning, environment, budget, and social effects. The current conditions of each project impose both constraints and inspiration on the design. The outcome often exhibits richer layers than new construction, forming a unique character for the project. Among the homogeneous cityscape, it promotes the differentiation of individuality.
At the end of 2020, Huahong Group acquired this unfinished building and restarted the project. Via requirement of planning bureau, at least the exterior facade need to be completed before the 19th Asian Games, which means that the project duration from concept design to curtain wall construction is only one and a half years. Within this extremely tight timeline, the primary goal of the design was to retain the characteristics of the twin towers while also excavating more space that would benefit users, all without altering the main structural framework. Additionally, among the surrounding cluster of curtain-walled high-rise towers, it was also a challenge to create a design that not only match the urban context, but also possessed a unique memory point, transforming this " steer clear of " urban scar into a " flock to " regional landmark.
Design Challenge
How to reshape a once monotonous tower into a new vertical space that optimizes the urban interface?
By incorporating suspended gardens, double layered flower ponds, sky platforms, and multi-level greening, the redesign of vertical space is not merely a stacking of design techniques and elements. Instead, it involves exploring the relevance and necessity of design strategies based on the existing building, maximizing the effectiveness of each design strategy to transform the original unfinished building into a new oasis, a place as cozy and relaxing as one's own home.
1. Overall Form – Hill-shape Building & Green Valley
The original structural curvature is preserved, extending its beauty from aerial view to eyes’ level. The architectural form resembles two elegant tea mountains standing tall, emanating the charm of Hangzhou. Beneath the hill-shape structures, the podium roofs are designed as open gardens, interconnecting the building, greenery, and public landscapes to create a hidden oasis of the city, providing users with a unique spatial experience.
2. Space Atmosphere - Creating Openness and Breathing of High-rise Buildings
The original towers were enclosed and monotonous, with a design language that did not engage in dialogue with the city. In the new design, cascading sky gardens are visible from two intersections away, and the building's users can rest and gaze across from within the gardens, fully experiencing its openness to the city.
The sky gardens create a vibrant and varied exclusive landscape within the building volume, making users nestled among high-rises less reliant on external urban vistas for visual appeal. From a planning perspective, they serve as open terraces within the city, where cozy public spaces replace the usual enclosed, air-conditioned interiors. These spaces bring in fresh, flowing air and lively sunlight. These open spaces interspersed at various heights offer users more opportunities for leisure, entertainment, and social interaction. Workplace, social spaces, sunlight, and plants intertwine across floors, extending along vertical greenery, seamlessly affects daily life inside the building.
3. Renovation Strategy – Reuse of Equipment Platform & Interior and Exterior Flower Ponds
By review of original drawings, we discovered that the existing equipment platforms directly protruded towards the main road, and due to changes in urban planning regulations, they could not be removed or accounted in FAR. If we couldn't hide them, we decided to show them off. The new design transformed these platforms into the structural framework of sky gardens, with greenery dotted at the turning points, breaking up the overly long s curved curtain wall, and cover the noise of the city, thereby creating a peaceful and serene spatial atmosphere.
Considering managing and maintaining difficulties of vertical greenery, we established a double-layer greening system. The interior green are for users to manage themselves, where they can create their own bonsai gardens or simply place a chair and tea table for enjoying the view. The exterior gardens are uniformly managed by the property management company to ensure the integrity and consistency of the vertical greenery. Additionally, we comprehensively considered Hangzhou's subtropical monsoon climate, the load limits of the steel-framed exterior flower ponds, and operational costs. We adopted a "half real, half artificial" mixed planting mode to maintain aesthetic appeal during autumn and winter, and provide tall shrubs on upper floors that serve as visual focal points from street view.
Two years after the completion, as time progresses, the ground-level landscaping, rooftop gardens of the podium, and sky gardens gradually come into use. The plants at these three vertical levels flourish vigorously, making the building resemble a tree deeply rooted in the streetscape, continuously growing towards maturity. Ultimately, it will elevate Hangzhou's scenery towards the sky, becoming a unique urban landmark for the area.
Privacy for high-rise areas, community sharing for commercial spaces, and neighborhood interaction.
1. Replacement Strategy
The original building was purely for office use, featuring an inward-curving gathering plaza on the south side in its original layout. The renovation introduced new usage demands: community retails,which posed new challenges for the master planning. The commercial spaces required open street-facing display areas and outdoor seating, oriented towards the main roads. Meanwhile, the office areas necessitated relatively private spatial circulation and convenient underground car-park access. Additionally, the client hoped to create an independent and private garden to distinguish the building from surrounding ordinary office towers. After numerous discussions with the client, the local institute, and structural engineers, the design adopted a " replacement " strategy. Along the structure beam of main tower, all protruding podium on the north side was demolished. The lost area was fully compensated for on the south side, filling in the original inward-curving plaza.
2. Separated Circulation
We reorganized the plan, reconstructing the original transportation core, elevators, toilets, and shared spaces, thereby enhancing the interaction between nature and architecture, as well as time and space.
After the replacement, the filled-in area on the south side became the main entrance and the middle atrium of the community retails. The existing height difference was utilized to create two levels of outdoor steps, providing street-level outdoor seating areas for shops along the main roads, effectively stimulate the street activities. The north side became the independent entrance for offices, with a direct access to the underground car-park. The demolished area was transformed into an private front garden . Its circulation route was inspired by the pedestrian system of traditional garden, with a central water feature as the core, surrounded by pathways with elements such as height differences, shelters, and stepping stones. The aim was to extend the route distance and create multiple viewing experiences within a very limited space.
The design attempts to create a sense of sharing through open public spaces and wide views, while utilizing separated circulation routes and garden landscapes to isolate personal spaces with private feeling. Most activity spaces inside building are interwoven with lush greenery, enhancing the interaction between nature and architecture, as well as time and space.
Design Thinking
We believe that good design can continuously self-renew and provide energy back to the city. The sky garden creates a dynamic and ever-changing volume, and the vertical greenery highlights the charm and elegance of the architecture. The renovation of the podium is not merely a change in appearance; it is a process of deconstructing, reorganizing, and empowering the site to transform it into a reactor that reinvigorates the connection between people and the city. It encourages everyone to spontaneously engage in urban life and forge emotional connections with the environment, making everyone a personal participant in urban renewal.
Credits:
Architecture Design: MUDO Architects + Do Design Group
Principal Architect: Shuli Sun
Engineering: Au-Sino Architectural Design Institute
Photographer: Yijie Hu, Guowei Liu
Project Background
The project (formerly known as Wanyu Tower) is located in the “Qianjiang Century City” area of Hangzhou, boasting a superior geographical location surrounded by apartments and office buildings. However, the construction was forced to suspend in 2014 after the original developer went bankrupt, despite having completed the basic structure. During the years of stagnation, with the completion of main Asian Games stadium, countless new buildings were built nearby, and form the new CBD of Xiaoshan District. This unfinished building, however, stood out like an unsightly scar of the city, lonely and out of place at a bustling intersection, clashing with the vibrant life all around it. It unfortunately listed as "China's Top Ten Unfinished Buildings" multiple times.
Renovation Opportunity
Transforming the unfinished building from one that people "steer clear of" to one that they "flock to" in only one and half year.
Renovation of an unfinished building requires balancing various demands in terms of planning, environment, budget, and social effects. The current conditions of each project impose both constraints and inspiration on the design. The outcome often exhibits richer layers than new construction, forming a unique character for the project. Among the homogeneous cityscape, it promotes the differentiation of individuality.
At the end of 2020, Huahong Group acquired this unfinished building and restarted the project. Via requirement of planning bureau, at least the exterior facade need to be completed before the 19th Asian Games, which means that the project duration from concept design to curtain wall construction is only one and a half years. Within this extremely tight timeline, the primary goal of the design was to retain the characteristics of the twin towers while also excavating more space that would benefit users, all without altering the main structural framework. Additionally, among the surrounding cluster of curtain-walled high-rise towers, it was also a challenge to create a design that not only match the urban context, but also possessed a unique memory point, transforming this " steer clear of " urban scar into a " flock to " regional landmark.
Design Challenge
How to reshape a once monotonous tower into a new vertical space that optimizes the urban interface?
By incorporating suspended gardens, double layered flower ponds, sky platforms, and multi-level greening, the redesign of vertical space is not merely a stacking of design techniques and elements. Instead, it involves exploring the relevance and necessity of design strategies based on the existing building, maximizing the effectiveness of each design strategy to transform the original unfinished building into a new oasis, a place as cozy and relaxing as one's own home.
1. Overall Form – Hill-shape Building & Green Valley
The original structural curvature is preserved, extending its beauty from aerial view to eyes’ level. The architectural form resembles two elegant tea mountains standing tall, emanating the charm of Hangzhou. Beneath the hill-shape structures, the podium roofs are designed as open gardens, interconnecting the building, greenery, and public landscapes to create a hidden oasis of the city, providing users with a unique spatial experience.
2. Space Atmosphere - Creating Openness and Breathing of High-rise Buildings
The original towers were enclosed and monotonous, with a design language that did not engage in dialogue with the city. In the new design, cascading sky gardens are visible from two intersections away, and the building's users can rest and gaze across from within the gardens, fully experiencing its openness to the city.
The sky gardens create a vibrant and varied exclusive landscape within the building volume, making users nestled among high-rises less reliant on external urban vistas for visual appeal. From a planning perspective, they serve as open terraces within the city, where cozy public spaces replace the usual enclosed, air-conditioned interiors. These spaces bring in fresh, flowing air and lively sunlight. These open spaces interspersed at various heights offer users more opportunities for leisure, entertainment, and social interaction. Workplace, social spaces, sunlight, and plants intertwine across floors, extending along vertical greenery, seamlessly affects daily life inside the building.
3. Renovation Strategy – Reuse of Equipment Platform & Interior and Exterior Flower Ponds
By review of original drawings, we discovered that the existing equipment platforms directly protruded towards the main road, and due to changes in urban planning regulations, they could not be removed or accounted in FAR. If we couldn't hide them, we decided to show them off. The new design transformed these platforms into the structural framework of sky gardens, with greenery dotted at the turning points, breaking up the overly long s curved curtain wall, and cover the noise of the city, thereby creating a peaceful and serene spatial atmosphere.
Considering managing and maintaining difficulties of vertical greenery, we established a double-layer greening system. The interior green are for users to manage themselves, where they can create their own bonsai gardens or simply place a chair and tea table for enjoying the view. The exterior gardens are uniformly managed by the property management company to ensure the integrity and consistency of the vertical greenery. Additionally, we comprehensively considered Hangzhou's subtropical monsoon climate, the load limits of the steel-framed exterior flower ponds, and operational costs. We adopted a "half real, half artificial" mixed planting mode to maintain aesthetic appeal during autumn and winter, and provide tall shrubs on upper floors that serve as visual focal points from street view.
Two years after the completion, as time progresses, the ground-level landscaping, rooftop gardens of the podium, and sky gardens gradually come into use. The plants at these three vertical levels flourish vigorously, making the building resemble a tree deeply rooted in the streetscape, continuously growing towards maturity. Ultimately, it will elevate Hangzhou's scenery towards the sky, becoming a unique urban landmark for the area.
Privacy for high-rise areas, community sharing for commercial spaces, and neighborhood interaction.
1. Replacement Strategy
The original building was purely for office use, featuring an inward-curving gathering plaza on the south side in its original layout. The renovation introduced new usage demands: community retails,which posed new challenges for the master planning. The commercial spaces required open street-facing display areas and outdoor seating, oriented towards the main roads. Meanwhile, the office areas necessitated relatively private spatial circulation and convenient underground car-park access. Additionally, the client hoped to create an independent and private garden to distinguish the building from surrounding ordinary office towers. After numerous discussions with the client, the local institute, and structural engineers, the design adopted a " replacement " strategy. Along the structure beam of main tower, all protruding podium on the north side was demolished. The lost area was fully compensated for on the south side, filling in the original inward-curving plaza.
2. Separated Circulation
We reorganized the plan, reconstructing the original transportation core, elevators, toilets, and shared spaces, thereby enhancing the interaction between nature and architecture, as well as time and space.
After the replacement, the filled-in area on the south side became the main entrance and the middle atrium of the community retails. The existing height difference was utilized to create two levels of outdoor steps, providing street-level outdoor seating areas for shops along the main roads, effectively stimulate the street activities. The north side became the independent entrance for offices, with a direct access to the underground car-park. The demolished area was transformed into an private front garden . Its circulation route was inspired by the pedestrian system of traditional garden, with a central water feature as the core, surrounded by pathways with elements such as height differences, shelters, and stepping stones. The aim was to extend the route distance and create multiple viewing experiences within a very limited space.
The design attempts to create a sense of sharing through open public spaces and wide views, while utilizing separated circulation routes and garden landscapes to isolate personal spaces with private feeling. Most activity spaces inside building are interwoven with lush greenery, enhancing the interaction between nature and architecture, as well as time and space.
Design Thinking
We believe that good design can continuously self-renew and provide energy back to the city. The sky garden creates a dynamic and ever-changing volume, and the vertical greenery highlights the charm and elegance of the architecture. The renovation of the podium is not merely a change in appearance; it is a process of deconstructing, reorganizing, and empowering the site to transform it into a reactor that reinvigorates the connection between people and the city. It encourages everyone to spontaneously engage in urban life and forge emotional connections with the environment, making everyone a personal participant in urban renewal.
Credits:
Architecture Design: MUDO Architects + Do Design Group
Principal Architect: Shuli Sun
Engineering: Au-Sino Architectural Design Institute
Photographer: Yijie Hu, Guowei Liu
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