Guangzhou Huangpu New Town Center is an urban development project by Vanke located in Shabu, Huangpu District, Guangzhou, covering an area of four million square meters. CLOU is responsible for the planning and design of Town Center 1.0, including Co·life and several community retails. This initiative represents a continuous design effort, embodying Vanke's commitment to life-building and the collaborative creation of a vibrant living environment.
This large-scale residential development on the outskirts of a major city may be a city reborn for longtime residents of Guangzhou. For young migrant workers living here, it becomes a new chapter in their lives as Guangzhou residents, while for the local children, it becomes a place of childhood memories. Shaping the identity and sense of belonging for the new residents of Guangzhou is a key mission in this design.
Rong Culture Centre: Hidden under the Banyan Trees.
Rong Culture Centre serves as a social hub within the entire town centre. It is an urban micro-renewal based on the existing culture centre.
The northern side of the building faces the vibrant Dajiaoyin Park, while the southern side overlooks Banyan Avenue. The culture centre creates a connection between the two, but as residents increasingly utilize the green spaces on both sides, a closed indoor space spanning between them becomes less desirable.
Driven by lifestyle and living philosophy, this urban renewal opens up the previously enclosed ground floor, forming a transparent pavilion. Below the pavilion, green outdoor spaces on the north and south sides are interconnected with alternating indoor and outdoor scenes, creating a versatile green flowing space adaptable to different functions and scenarios.
#1 The Origin
Start from the tree, creating ideal lifestyle and warm social living scenes under the canopy.
The design originates from an old banyan tree on the site, extending to the second floor through a red spiral staircase. The open entrance and facade on the ground floor together create an open and inclusive space for the community.
#2 Social Corridor
The protruding rain canopy creates a grey zone between indoors and outdoors, extending the indoor ambience to the outdoors, blurring the boundaries and mitigating the impact of Guangzhou's variable weather on social gatherings.
The flexible open facade design, combined with furniture designed for people to linger, relax, and converse, adds diversity and flexibility to the use of indoor and outdoor spaces
#3 Flower Shop/Pop-up
The flower shop's window counter serves as a communication hub for the host and regular customers, with seats facing Dajiaoyin Park for casual neighbourly conversations. Comfortable and free-flowing emotions coexist with retail business here.
#4 Piano Box
The music studio on one side of the ground floor directly faces the picturesque scenery of Dajiaoyin Park. It features a uniquely designed piano space, cleverly connecting the indoor and outdoor spaces. This creates an open event space and an excellent venue for nurturing art and cultural scenes within the community.
The transformed culture centre retains its functions above the third floor, resembling a floating forest music cabin above the pavilion.
Diverse and rich life scenes converge, blend, and collide in this centrally surrounded green area. Day or night, weekends or holidays, people with different life statuses gather here, making it a common destination for everyone.
New Town Centre: A Beacon on the Way Home.
The retail here not only fulfils basic community needs, such as markets, senior activity rooms, and community cafeterias but also represents an open and confident vision for a better future.
In this project, both the property owner and the design team act as participants rather than top-down decision-makers. The property owner plays the role of a platform provider, with residents acting as both demand and supply. The owner provides basic services, establishes a platform for connections between two or more parties, and offers comprehensive services to platform participants, encouraging more involvement. As the platform's content expands and optimizes, its functions evolve into a stable and diverse ecosystem.
This drives our focus away from the physical space of the building to the users' mental and physical well-being, as well as the connection and interaction between people and space. If the Culture centre is the social living room of the town centre, then the retail everyone passes by on their way home daily is embodying the essence of home. Beneath the continuous rain canopy lies a weather-resistant path home and a place for daily necessities and small joys. The beige curved ceramic panels and open facades create a warm and relaxed living atmosphere. The carrier of this platform is the spatial scene we hope to present in this community retail. Through the experiences and memories brought by architecture, we shape the emotional connection between life and the city.
The ceramic board hanging device in front of the home entrance allows residents, enduring wind and rain outside, to see a lantern illuminating their way home, providing a sense of warmth.
When we start examining daily life from the perspective of life itself, we realize that what people truly need are spaces that facilitate encounters, pauses, communication, and play—a place that leaves lasting memories. The shaping of each urban space is intertwined with people's emotional well-being, contributing to their daily lives. This state of companionship, healing, and mutual achievement ultimately shapes the overall health and happiness of the community.
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