Led by Aedas Executive Director Ed Lam, the 7-storey Chengdu ICD has become a new retail landmark in the city. Covering 128,000 sq m, it is located at the gateway of the Central Jinjiang Business District. The newly completed complex comprises of five above-ground storeys and two basement storeys of retail space. It enjoys great accessibility being built right above the city’s main metro lines and strategically placed along the core zone of Dongda Road Commercial District, with direct access to the metro lines at basement level, and transport interchange at ground level.

As the retail counterpart of the Chengdu International Commerce Centre complex, ‘ICD’ stands for ‘incredible’, ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘delicate’, thoroughly capturing the sentiments of Chengdu, in hopes of creating a city hub that provides space for vibrant social interactions and connections, while accommodating all aspects of customer needs to provide a quality and unique shopping experience. It houses amenities such as international fashion brands, fine-dining restaurants, a Dolby Cinema, and a landscaped roof garden for alfresco dining and leisure strolls.

Design concept and façade design

The design is derived from Chengdu’s culture and the adjacent Shahe (Sand River), which emphasises a carefree and harmonious co-existence with nature. Positioned as a ‘heavenly fiesta inspired by water’, the flowing curve starts from one-dimensional and gradually develops into different levels of curves, creating a unique but sophisticating façade.

The dynamic and intriguing façade is nothing short of functional. Starting with a simple curve from the west side, the façade adopts double-height clear laminated glass curtain to create an elegant glowing pattern for the high-end West Wing. It features natural sunlight that acts as commercial displays.

The curves flows and intersects as to create open setback alfresco dining spaces, extending the dining experience to outdoor and enhancing the interaction between the mall and its surrounding streetscape.

These curves then twist and twirl into three-dimensional curves, the geographical beauty is extended to our ribbon-like façade design, creating a long, narrow frontage with organic free-flowing and stretching strokes for the recreational East Wing.

The interweaving LED lines at night form rich changes in the perception of light and outline the unique geographical beauty.

Vibrant exterior-interior space

With the surrounding areas around the ICD turned into a commercial street, it enhances the visibility of brands altogether by utilising a multi-faceted floor-to-ceiling glass design. The simple and elegant design style does not simply promote a sense of space but also allows for a smooth integration between the outdoor and indoor spaces.

The free-flowing element is also consistently brought indoors, outlined by a very rhythmic ‘ribbon’, emitting a soft and warm atmosphere. Similarly, this element is skillfully embedded into the lines of movement in the development, guiding the visitors to navigate along a certain path, significantly improving the depth of their visit.

Effective indoor retail planning

As an urban living room with mixed functionalities, Chengdu ICD is zoned into five distinctive areas – the high-end West Wing ‘Tranquil Snowberg’, the leisure East Wing ‘Glistening Riverside’, the cultural atrium ‘Rippling Spotlight’, the relaxing rooftop garden ‘Soaring Waterfall’, and the underground ‘Flowing Valley’. They are seamlessly connected by an effective retail planning and circulation strategy, allowing visitors to enjoy multi-functional activities with all age groups.

Entering from the main entrance, the west wing - high-end fashion walk offers a luxurious shopping experience with bright and elegant atmosphere. The east wing - Entertainment Hotspot provides leisure entertainment that houses kid zones and Dolby Cinema, supplemented with a warm and relaxing ambience. At the central atrium - interactive cultural gallery, the natural sunlight and scenery are injected into the interiors, enhancing the exterior-interior interaction. The rooftop - Four Season Garden is filled with landscape to create a serene environment, while the basement – Underground exploration serves as the ‘Grand Canyon’ connection between the mall and Metro Lines 2 and 8, providing an all-weather pathway to visitors and guiding footprints from the stations towards the retail destination.

The interior space is run through by an atrium corridor covered with glass skylights of different shapes, scales and themes, forming areas with varying light and shadow changes, with the aim to provide an ever-changing spatial experience to the visitors. Natural light creates a bright atmosphere in the space, bringing out an elegant ambience for fashion brands. The indoor commercial interface echoes the outdoor space with flowing curves, unifying the internal and external spaces. The two ends of the free-form glass skylight are designed as a featured canopy, creating an eye-catching entrance to the rooftop garden, adding visual elements to the space while effectively connecting the outdoor leisure and dining areas of the rooftop garden with the commercial spaces on the lower floors, appealing to the natural leisure populism that the city pursues.

People-oriented features

One of the main features of the ICD would be same-floor parking, implying that visitors are able to drive directly to their destination floors and save the hassle of changing elevators. This achieves a separation between the flow of people and vehicles, enhancing the elevators' efficiency. It is easily accessible by traffic on multiple levels through drop-off points or carpark.

With fantastic accessibility and mixed-use planning, Chengdu ICD is deemed to be an attractive retail destination that puts forward a brand-new experience in the city, offering an international appeal. ‘In order to highlight the beauty of nature and to reflect the living habits and culture of Chengdu citizens, the mall is created not only to be a distinctive landmark for Chengdu, but also as an integral part of the city’s urban fabric and a leisure destination for the citizens, eventually become a new rhythm to vitalise the ancient city,’ says Ed.