Driven by the "Future Community" initiative in Zhejiang Province, the Quzhou Lixian Future Community, as one of the first pilot projects, includes commercial housing developed on four plots with a total above-ground floor area of approximately 235,000 square meters and a plot ratio of 2.0. From the outset of the bidding process, the goal was to fundamentally change the state of commercial housing's extreme pursuit of profit, seeking a path from the foundational model that better aligns with the vision of a good life, creating a modern "good residence" beside the ancient city with a millennium of history.

01. Dissolution and Return of Scale
The primary design challenge, given a plot ratio of 2.0 and height restrictions due to an airport flight path, was how to escape the imbalanced scale caused by high-rise residential complexes and achieve a human-friendly scale. Inspiration has been drawn from the street networks and alleys within Quzhou's ancient city—creating enclosed courtyards. By using 5-story volumes to enclose courtyards of varying sizes and widths, the capacity of high-rises has been transferred into the density of low-rises. We believe the scale of 5-story, approximately 15-meter-high courtyards is intimate, friendly, and can interact dimensionally with large trees.

A small number of high-rises are scattered above the enclosed courtyards in the form of point towers, alluding to the "watchtowers" on the Fang of the ancient city. Color and form further distinguish the "Fang" and the "Lou": the lower "Fang" are white 5-story enclosed courtyards, treated with wall openings to present a solid feel; the upper "Lou" are wooden-colored point high-rises, employing horizontal overhanging eaves for a lighter, more transparent effect. This not only responds to traditional impressions but also dissolves the sense of oppression from high-rise volumes, allowing the return of a human-scale, comfortable feeling.

02. Dignity and Vitality of Mixed Occupancy
The Future Community requires providing a certain number of talent apartments and public rental housing to gather development potential for the city and community. Differing from the conventional model of placing them separately in a corner and rigidly segregating them in management, "mixed occupancy of populations" has been a key consideration in this scheme: talent apartments are placed in various east-west oriented blocks within the commercial housing cluster's enclosed courtyards. Although this sacrifices some sunlight, occupants can enjoy shared large gardens or partial river views, which is attractive to young people.

The overall enclosed courtyard form breaks the conventional perception that "good housing must face north-south," avoiding "conflicts" during sales and allocation. More importantly, the open, fully mixed occupancy system ensures talent apartment residents equally enjoy community amenities and river views as other homeowners, safeguarding the dignity of young people's lives and providing strong support for the community's sustainable and healthy development.

03. Openness and Boundaries of the Community
"Creating an open community" has been the design direction set from the beginning. What is a suitable open model that allows residents to retain a sense of security and territoriality? Our design concept was: elevate the community's ground level, establishing an elevated, shared, safe three-dimensional pedestrian system that spans surrounding roads to connect different residential clusters and public service facilities across the entire area, extending to the Shuangshui Park to the east and Yanjiayu Island to the west, blurring the boundary between community and city, maximizing openness.

All residential cluster gardens are located on this elevated pedestrian system, connected to city streets via stairs, ramps, and elevators in multiple directions. Although open to the city, the one-story height difference naturally forms a community boundary, strengthening residents' sense of belonging and identity, and also making possible the "street eyes" concept discussed by Jane Jacobs in The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

04. Layering and Integration of Public Spaces
The commercial housing uses a typical layout of two units per floor served by one elevator core. To foster a healthy, vibrant community atmosphere, the design vertically organizes three major public layers from bottom to top using the street-level layer, the elevated pedestrian platform, and rooftop farms, corresponding to the city, community, and cluster levels respectively: the street-level layer houses community support facilities: markets, community medical points, childcare and elderly care service centers, retail, and dining, etc., forming the basic service foundation for the entire community, continuing the vibrant atmosphere of urban streets; the elevated pedestrian platform integrates pedestrian bridges across blocks and cluster gardens, featuring pools, children's play areas, sports grounds, and semi-private leisure courtyards, open and shared at the community level, serving as the main board for social interaction; the rooftop farms are the vacant parts on top of the enclosed courtyards not occupied by towers. They are interconnected by cluster and accessible via building stairs/elevators from each unit, becoming a territory for neighborly interaction between upstairs and downstairs residents.

These three public layers have clear boundaries yet connect smoothly with each other: the street-level layer and the elevated platform are connected by stairs, ramps, and elevators, often appearing in groups with arched gateways, acting as both boundary and interface. The rooftop farms have setback terraced landscape stairs at the corners of each cluster volume, providing barrier-free connection to the elevated pedestrian system and cluster gardens, preventing them from becoming the private domain of 6th-floor residents. Together, the upper and lower layers form a multi-path, looped three-dimensional public open system.

05. Inheritance and Innovation of Form
The facade takes the ancient city's arch gates and old house eave canopies as formal references, presenting historical continuity in a modern way. The "arch gate" serves both as an identifying window for each neighborhood block towards the city streets and as a connecting passageway passing through courtyards and alleys. Combining the characteristics of each cluster, the arches appear in varying heights, widths, and sizes, reflecting a non-standard, handcrafted feel that enriches the spatial expression of the clusters.

Both the white "Fang" and wooden "Lou" feature horizontal eave canopies on the building facades. The difference is that the former resembles the chitou eave practice of Jiangnan, using the roughness of grey tiles and the simplicity of whitewashed walls to express the "Fang's" sense of substance, while the latter resembles the floating eaves of pavilions, using deep overhangs and slender components to express the "Lou's" sense of lightness. While evoking memories of the ancient city through form, they also serve practical functions like rain shelter and sun shading.

06. User Feedback and Evaluation
Despite great determination, everyone was worried whether the innovations would gain market acceptance. When it was learned that the commercial housing units were sold out during the pre-sale phase even before the physical show flats were open, everyone was gratified. The commercial housing was fully delivered in September 2023 and has become a popular spot. People stop and look up in front of the arches, chat while watching children play by the facilities, or simply sit under large trees looking at the Qujiang River, in stillness or motion, in small groups. Seeing these scenes adds to the residents' pride. They happily say, "Finally living in the good house we desired..." Delivery is an endpoint for housing construction, but a starting point for community building. We will continue to monitor its usage to verify or refine our design thinking.

Project Information
Project Name：Quzhou Lixian Future Community Commercial Housing
Project Location：Quzhou, Zhejiang, China
Detailed Address: South Side of the Intersection of Heyi Road and Shuangang Road, North Side of the Intersection of Shuangshui Road and South Qujiang Road, Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province.
Design Period: 2019-2020
Completed in: September 2023
Site Area: 107,000 m²
Floor Area: 363,000 m²
Plot Ratio: 2.0
Design Unit: gad
Construction Documents Design: gad
Landscape Design: gad, GTS Lansong Design
Interior Design: Zhejiang Greentown United Design Co., Ltd.; Zhejiang Bluetown ZSD Architectural Environment Design Co., Ltd.
Client: Quzhou Greentown Chengtou Future Community Real Estate Co., Ltd.
Photography: Right Angle Image