Phoenix Valley is a new cultural icon and hub in Wujin, China. The new cultural heart of a city, Phoenix Valley is conceived as a geological entity, carved through time by the canal to form a cultural valley that has exposed the opal-like jewel of its children gallery. The new complex houses the Wujin Grand Theatre for 1000 patrons, four cinemas, sports and dance halls, art galleries, and an invigorating and complex early childhood education center for teaching arts, robotics, dance, and music. The complex also includes a retail hub and public square with canals, screens, and children’s playgrounds.
The project was driven from the outset by sustainability, building on Studio505's experience with the Pixel building in Melbourne, and is covered with a detailed pattern-planted green roof that transitions into to green walls, a 2,000-meters-square BIPV solar panel installation and integrated geothermal heating.
The interior design of Phoenix Valley manipulates fields of light, of insect exoskeleton carapaces and projections, creating an internal wilderness that is occupied and claimed by inhabitants, whose functions are reconsidered from the geological innards of the buildings' mountain-like forms. These common themes allow for a great range of difference in the areas, and the functional character and simplicity of the building to preside.
The project recently achieved LEED Gold equivalent rating, the China 3 Star Rating, China's highest rating in sustainability, won the 2013 LuBan prize for construction excellence, and the interior of its Grand Auditorium was shortlisted for the WAF Inside award.