This project is located in the Urban Sports Park and along the canal in the Eastern Development Zone of Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province. Surrounded by government offices, residential areas, reception hotels, and other facilities, it represents a typical new urban development zone in China. The site itself exhibits typical characteristics of Chinese urban development zones, lacking regional features and highlighting the roughness of rapid urbanization. The project will serve as an important commercial and public service node in the surrounding new city development, reflecting on the local characteristics of Yancheng and the current challenges of physical retail in the area.
Yancheng lies between the water towns of Jiangnan and the plains of the north, blending the elegance of Jiangnan gardens with the solidity of northern brick and stone architecture. Water, sky, and brick form the essence of the architecture. The design aims to integrate environmental elements into the architectural space, creating a harmonious place. In the post-pandemic era, with a growing trend towards health and sports lifestyles, the seamless connection between the architectural space and the canal park presents new opportunities. Ample outdoor space for commercial activities and a focus on experiential retail design become the main themes of the architectural space design.
Adjacent to the canal park in the south, the site breaks traditional land boundaries by introducing a large landscaped terrace into the architecture. The creation of a water courtyard plaza on the second floor entrance parallel to the canal park square makes the park's leisure crowd more accessible to the building space. The water courtyard plaza at the main entrance on the second floor also provides shelter from rain for customers, offering new possibilities for spatial experience and integrating modern architecture with traditional architectural and environmental elements to attract foot traffic.
The grand staircase and the water courtyard plaza at the second-floor entrance also create a double ground floor pattern for the three-story commercial space, optimizing as much commercial space as possible. Traditional commercial spaces on the second and third floors, often overlooked, are activated, with some becoming the most valuable single shops in the entire commercial complex. The three-dimensional streets and outdoor courtyards spread across the second and third floors provide new value to the relatively enclosed upper-level commercial spaces, resembling traditional architectural courtyards and responding to the post-pandemic desire for a natural and healthy lifestyle.
By erecting triangular gateways with strong geometric symbolism along the canal park, using materials such as stone, corrugated stainless steel, water surfaces, ultra-clear glass, and dramatic lighting, the architecture abstracts the undulating rooflines and triangular gables of traditional Yancheng buildings. The use of corrugated stainless steel resembling water ripples, the water courtyard in the second-floor entrance space, and the ultra-clear glass contribute to the building's spiritual connection with water, collectively creating a unique urban landmark for the canal park and the eastern development zone.
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