Along the 24.4 km ecological shoreline of East Tai Lake in Wujiang, Suzhou, S-Bay uses water as its central thread, weaving together ecological fabric and urban vitality. As a key node in the region’s ten-station system, Station No. 3 at S-Bay adopts a tripartite collaborative model of government-led infrastructure, operation-led pre-development, and design-driven fine detailing: the government completes the main structure and basic facilities, then introduces local mature coffee brand NAPAN CAFE through investment promotion; the operator proposes targeted renovation requirements based on pain points in diverse scenarios such as waterfront commerce, cycling services, and public rest; the design team, grounded in site context and operational logic, carries out systematic architectural renovation to reshape the threefold relationship between architecture, Tai Lake, the city, and people, responding to the region’s heritage with minimal and restrained architectural language. Through operation-led planning and community participation, the project offers a new paradigm for the development of urban waterfront stations.
The original station building is square in form and relatively restrained in its interface, yet its volume does not fully resonate with the expansive waterfront texture of East Tai Lake. The window proportions, facade order, and external circulation were mainly designed for basic rest functions, leaving room for improvement in addressing the demands of today’s composite waterfront living scenarios. Instead of large-scale demolition and reconstruction, this renovation adopts lightweight facade renewal, structural optimization, and spatial reconfiguration as its core strategies, preserving the original structural system as much as possible. Through the renewal of the architectural interface, the building’s rigid mass is effectively softened.
The design extracts the dynamic site character of Tai Lake’s “ripples,” transforming the natural rhythm of water into a static architectural order. Using the diffusion layers, gradual rhythm, and softened edges of lake ripples as a design prototype, the visual logic of the street-facing and lake-facing facades is restructured. The advances and recesses of the building form, the density of lines, and the size of openings all respond to the peaks and troughs of the shoreline waves, achieving a symbiotic dialogue between architectural volume and natural site,breaking the dull and introverted character of the original building.
Redefining the building skin as a medium for architectural emotion, a guide for movement, and a transitional interface, the design integrates function, vision, and narrative. Using AIGC, the team simulated dozens of color and texture combinations across waterfront light, climate, and urban context — from bright to neutral tones, matte to subtle metallic finishes — and selected the optimal scheme that responds to Tai Lake’s sky and water while ensuring a distinct identity. A public color vote was also launched on Xiaohongshu, combining professional judgment with public preference. This approach ensures public adaptability, generates early exposure, and achieves triple value in design decision-making, community participation, and brand visibility.
The facade window frames and entrance space use a modular assembly of 48 ultra-durable custom metal panels, a key design balancing artistic expression and engineering execution. The team decomposed the complete ripple gradient pattern into 48 independent panels based on the structural logic of corners, window divisions, and volumetric recesses. Each panel has its own color parameters, gradient amplitude, and dimensions; strict division precision ensures each panel stands alone as an image, while together they form a continuous, fluid ripple visual, perfectly recreating the dynamic rhythm of lake water spreading outward layer by layer. The ultra-durable metal panels offer over 12 years of weather resistance, suitable for the humid, high-UV climate along the Tai Lake shore.
Warm yellow and orange-red tones are concentrated at the entrance and street-facing displays, enhancing the building’s public openness and vibrant energy, guiding people closer. Cool blue-violet tones are distributed on the sides and upper parts, combined with matte metallic textures, giving the building a quiet geometric depth. The warm-to-cool gradient transition breaks the purely rational, cold order of modern architecture, giving the building skin a dynamic mood that changes with light.
Based on the original structural framework, the design reshapes the building's three-dimensional hierarchy through massing interpenetration and solid-void reconstruction. Following the rhythm of ripple peaks and troughs, door and window openings of varying sizes are arranged in a staggered manner along the facade, forming a free yet ordered solid-void relationship that enhances the sense of recession and protrusion as well as the play of light and shadow across the building form.
The introduction of large panoramic glass curtain walls reduces the proportion of solid walls, bringing the greenery, shimmering water, and skyline of Tai Lake maximally indoors, achieving two-way spatial-landscape penetration. During the day, natural light floods through the scattered openings, creating flowing light ripples on walls and floors. At night, interior light spills out, turning the building into a luminous carrier above the water, presenting a completely different architectural temperament between day and night. The curved edge detailing at corners softens the sharpness of right angles, continuing the gentle curve of water waves, making the overall form more attuned to the dynamic character of the waterfront site.
The interior space continues the core design logic of “ripple diffusion.” The first floor serves as the public core layer, with an open, transparent layout integrating coffee bar, light food prep area, cycling gear display, and outdoor terrace, with clear circulation and zoning. The unobstructed space accommodates diverse scenarios such as visitor flow, social media check-ins, and equipment experiences, balancing commercial service efficiency with public rest functions.
The second floor is a tranquil viewing level. The main seating area uses curved forms echoing the water-themed facade. Hanging green plants on the ceiling respond to the natural ecological tone, while floor-to-ceiling glass maximizes lake views, creating an immersive waterfront observation space. This layered spatial framework allows the building to accommodate both public vitality and quiet relaxation, achieving functional multi-dimensionality within a small volume.
Deeply integrating the professional attributes of a cycling station, the design organizes sports service spaces and commercial leisure spaces in an integrated yet zoned coexistence. The open front area on the first floor is reserved for dedicated cycling gear display, bike parking, and equipment supply zones, accommodating professional functions such as bike rental, repair, and gear storage. The generous outdoor terrace can host cycling community gatherings, activity check-ins, and team breaks, serving the stopover needs of the 24.4 km Tai Lake cycling route. This realizes the composite waterfront positioning of "sports + leisure + viewing," transforming the station from a single-purpose rest space into a vibrant hub that supports diverse lifestyles.
The flat, open waterfront area and entrance circulation outside the building allow for rapid gathering and dispersal of large numbers of cyclists and bikes. The step-free, unobstructed access seamlessly connects with the outdoor lawn and lakeside cycling path, forming a smooth sequence of “cycling path – station zone – lakeside leisure area,” enabling cyclists to quickly switch between sport rest, coffee replenishment, and camping relaxation.
This project integrates AIGC digital deduction, public participation in decision-making, and operation-led design throughout the renovation process, striving to make the architectural design more aligned with real usage scenarios and commercial needs. Through refined facade renewal, spatial restructuring, and functional adaptation, it seeks to achieve a balanced coexistence of landscape aesthetics, cycling services, and daily commercial leisure. In the future, Station No. 3 will leverage the resources of the East Tai Lake cycling route, operating in a stable, diverse, and human-centered spatial condition to serve daily scenes such as cycling replenishment, neighborhood leisure, and community social interactions, continuously revitalizing underused waterfront spaces. It aspires to provide a practical reference for the fine-grained implementation and long-term sustainable operation of urban waterfront stations.