NANJING JIANGXINZHOU MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT

Location
Jiangxinzhou, Nanjing, PRC
Type
Architecture / Commercial
GFA
42,800 sm
Status
Construction in progress
Client
FreeTech Road Recycling Technology (Holdings) Limited
Local Design Institute
Architects & Engineers Co. Ltd. Of Southeast University
Design Architect
A:I
A:I Project Team
Dennis Lee, Celia Lun, Zoe Lam, Derek Lau, Sarah Chan, Ice Ou

Nanjing Jianxinzhou is a spear-shaped island to the east of the Jianye District and in the middle of the Yangtze river with total land area about 15 square kilometer. Since 2009, the City of Nanjing, Jiangsu provincial government, and Sino Singapore Eco High Tech Island Development Company had been collaborating to develop residential housing for 200,000 people, while retaining much of the vegetation and grape trees. To create a “garden city”, development projects were encouraged to consider low carbon strategies, water reclamation, and renewable energy sources. In line with the development guidelines, the island would have no manufacturing businesses or factories, but modern agricultural, services, and technologies firms. Jiangxinzhou – meaning ”the island in the middle of the river”, target to rebrand itself to be an “Eco-friendly Technology Development Island”.

While office layouts are relatively easy to resolve when traditional office design is giving way to more open and activity-based planning, residential use poses a more challenging problem in the scale of 600 to 1,000 sm. The Owner asked us to research traditional Chinese Mansion in major Chinese cities and their space flow from entry point to the gallery, and from the gallery to various common living spaces. The research helped us to develop program diagrams and rooms arrangement both horizontally and vertically. We accentuate each program area to give distinctive characters on the facade, offering large window openings, terrace and balconies, and slit windows that allow natural light to come through while privacy is maintained.