Led by Aedas Executive Director Kelvin Hu, Aedas created the Nansha Futures Industrial Park in Guangzhou, injecting new vitality into the city’s financial development.
‘The prosperity of finance and the natural ambience intertwine harmoniously, creating a unique charm,” said Hu.
The design takes inspiration from the landscape characters and echoes the city skyline to create timeless architecture that blends Chinese and modern aesthetics. The park captures Nansha’s unique features of “mountains, rivers, sea, fields, and cities”, creating a bespoke layout to optimise spatial planning. The design sets the grassroots space in a grid-like layout, creating natural ventilation and sightseeing corridors.
The east-west axis traverses the project and links different spatial nodes. Three office towers are positioned on the south side, with their height decreasing gradually from west to east. Low-rise buildings are arranged on the north side to foster a rich and open urban waterfront public space, simultaneously maximising the overall building’s views of the river and sea.
The design introduces an innovative spatial concept to balance public buildings and private space. Above 30 metres, it embraces modern, minimalistic elements, while below features a diverse array of Lingnan-inspired details. The design also includes themed scenes through connecting corridors, fostering a lively and vibrant public space.
The design emphasises the harmony between architectural art and urban context, injecting a large number of Lingnan traditional elements. Inspired by Lingnan rattan weaving, the courtyards along with the retail streets bloom with diverse flowers and lush plants, creating an urban oasis atmosphere. Spanning east to west, the financial streets seamlessly connect the entire design, providing a pathway to green spaces, effectively linking the project with ecological leisure and the surrounding urban areas.
“Architecture focuses on human-centric design solutions to integrate experience, blending experience with future trends and industrial development. The park fosters a vibrant community that melds industry, work and life, setting a pioneering standard for emerging industrial parks in Nansha and the GBA,” Kelvin said.
Standing dominantly in the Guangzhou International Bio Island of Huangpu District, the headquarters clusters biotech enterprises and enjoys a well-connected transportation network. The prominent location provides a spectacular view that overlooks the National Wetland Park and overlooks the Canton Tower.
“The design responds to the nearby coastline and public space by placing the main tower away from the river, optimising the lake view for the headquarters and the surrounding environment,” Fiona says.
The headquarters incorporates R&D, laboratories, conference and exhibition functions within a compact site. Fiona continued: “The design combines functionality with nature and creates abundant public space, to shape a placemaking Akesobio headquarters.”
Closely stitched to the urban fabrics, the laboratories and conference rooms are designed on the podium, and a rooftop garden is designed to face the river. The R&D tower is placed in the east, in harmony with the surrounding developments. Two-thirds of the tower enjoys a view towards the river, providing a close connection with nature and creating a serene working environment.
The multi-levelled terraces offer vibrant public space on the west of the plot, while the first floor is cantilevered to provide a spacious recreational area for the community. An exhibition hall connects the east and west entrances, city and waterfront spaces.
The rooftop garden is designed on the podium, which connects the exterior-interior spaces, and creates a diverse inter-connected pedestrian system. With the amenities and lake view, the garden is slated to provide a tranquil work-recreate environment for the workers.
“The lake view was originally blocked by the lakeside greenery on the ground, thus our design elevates the public space to the third floor, ensuring the unobstructed Pearl River view without any blockage,” said Fiona.
The architectural form simulates the silhouette of a harp and adopts simple linear lines on the façade. It glitters from the flowing river and creates a dynamic building that stands in the Huangpu District. The design introduces sunlight to the atrium and the sight-viewing elevators, to inject vibrancy to the workplace. Providing a collaborative and people-centric atrium, workers are encouraged to communicate, socialise, and rest from the fast-paced work life.
“‘The design pays great attention to the integration of the Akeso’s corporate culture, the building and the nature, marking the headquarters an urban icon for the city,” Keith said.
In the ‘City of University’, Aedas Executive Director Kelvin Hu has led the team to create a world-leading campus in Wuhan. The project is located adjacent to the Huazhong Ketaicheng, offering a cradle to cultivate the next generation in an all-rounded learning environment. Kelvin says, ‘To maximise the learning efficiency, the design integrates the key elements to equip the students’ academic studies, presentation ability and social skills. The campus connects to the community seamlessly, providing a comprehensive environment for the youths to grow with knowledge and interpersonal skills.’
A cradle for science innovations
Through the metaphor of breeding knowledge for generations to come, the campus is an interconnected space positioned as the ‘origin of technology’, with different parts of it representing a section of a vibrantly growing plant, together forming a thriving ecosystem of knowledge. Starting from the gate, the main school campus can be found to signify ‘A Bud of the Future’ as an integral part of the system where growth happens.
Moving inward, high-end ecological residential towers are placed along the ‘City Vine’, providing modern residences suitable for contemporary living. The ‘City Forest’ is placed at the northernmost of the plot to include technology headquarters as a stage to cater for the technology elites. With a clear layout stitching various functions, the design also offers a seamless connection to the surrounding community, nurturing the next generation to innovatively create and develop in technological aspects within the well-planned environment.
A stage for the students to shine
The cascading terraces embrace the greenery and sports ground in a U-shaped academic building to form an enclosed courtyard. With such a design, a theatre-like environment is mimicked with the athletic tracks acting like a stage and the academic building acting like a theatre’s seating area. It symbolises how the vision of the school is to serve as a platform for students to thrive and shine with their talents, preparing them towards a path to becoming a high-tech elite.
An enclosed spacious courtyard is created, providing a humane ambience while the classrooms are filled with natural sunlight to offer the students pleasant conditions to learn and recreate. The northwestern side of the athletic tracks opens up and forms a dialogue with the local urban context, showcasing a friendly interface facing the community.
The stadium and canteen are placed underneath the elevated sports ground, creating more public areas for greenery and social gatherings. The multi-function hall is placed above the sports ground, as a connector between the school and community. The glass curtain wall of the stadium injects an urban street view into the interiors, forming a placemaking hub for the city.
An energetic campus for collaboration
With efficient layout and spatial planning, the design creates two open communal spaces for collaboration. One of them closely connects to the academic buildings, while another one merges with the recreational amenities and fronts the community. The spaces create a social hub for the students to equip their communication skills and enhance their social understanding of the urban context and local culture.
The courtyard brings greenery into the interiors, further extending the biophilic vibrancy to the permeable terraces. The integration of nature creates a lush outdoor environment for students to interact after classes. The shared spaces seamlessly connect with the elevated sports ground, creating vertical multi-functional areas for the campus.
Facing the community, the public realm provides amenities like the stadium and library, serving the public as a recreational urban oasis. With well-planned circulation, both communal spaces are lined with privacy to ensure the students’ safety, creating a safe co-working environment for the student body and the public alike. Utilising the urban interface, the campus includes comfortable pick-up zones for parents.
Breeding for the future
The school’s vision aims to create personalised education to activate the students’ potential with a blended teaching model. To stimulate curiosity and to include outdoor interactive learning zones, the adaptive design includes science parks, botanical gardens, badminton and table tennis fields, a multimedia learning centre and extra-curricular corners. It is bound to provide an all-rounded campus to support and nurture students in a comprehensive way.
Kelvin shares, ‘We have designed an integrated campus, adding another institution landmark to the district through a hybrid of technology and ecology. The Wuhan Central China Science & Ecological City Primary School project will be the birthplace of fostering and advocating innovation and critical thinking. Connecting with the community, the campus is set to spread knowledge and vibrancy to the surroundings.’
Completed in 2022, the Aedas-designed Chengdu Damofang project represents the future of Chengdu by utilising personalised technology and aesthetic scene creation as its design concept. In view of the rising aesthetical standard nowadays, the design combines culture and art which has created the benchmark for the urban commercial space.
Standing in the south of the city, the project is located in the Jiaozi Park Financial and Business Zone with a convenient transportation network. Adjacent to the Cultural Centre, the project site is an important hub that combines the cultural and commercial aspects of Chengdu. With a deep understanding of the market and the master plan, the project is designed to focus on spatial planning based on developing a sense of experience, ambience and trendiness. Unique scenery is designed to strengthen its commercial position and develop the blueprint for future commercial development.
‘The shopping mall is sitting adjacent to the theatre. By incorporating art and culture into commercial, the project is providing consumers with a vibrant, personalised and immersive shopping experience,’ said Aedas Global Design Principal Ken Wai. Themes, culture and wellness are logically presented and distributed throughout the interior, which has overcome the site’s constraints and blurs the boundary between the indoors and outdoors.
To effectively use the high ceiling of the sunken plaza, an enormous tree-like LED installation is placed at the North entrance. It displays customised videos and becomes a popular photo-taking spot. The outdoor natural scenery is extended into the interior space that seamlessly links the indoors and outdoors to support the transit hub. A glassed-in tropical forest chamber and the lushly decorated façade are designed to maximise both the aesthetic value and practicality, as well as to create a night-time scenery complemented by commercial activities.
The fluid void edges with lighting effects create a vibrant atmosphere for the shopping arcade. Natural lights penetrating through the ceiling deliver a bright and amicable space where people feel that they are walking in a tropical forest. A simple and elegant ambience is created by integrating various light and warm-tone colour materials. To fit in with the needs of the new generation, functional spaces are scenarised to cater to various consumer groups, such as beauty and kid-themed areas, creating a vibrant and trendy destination in Tianfu.
Jointly designed by the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University and Aedas, this proposal is one of the shortlisted designs for the Jinzhan International Cooperation Service District in Beijing. It is closely located where the embassies are clustered, embodying harmony and synergy of cultural diversity. The district is aimed to become a focal development for Chaoyang, Beijing.
With a concept of a “Central Fusion Zoning”, the proposal injects multi-functional industries to promote the city’s image, advocate international exchange and facilitate future development. The planning adopts concentric circular zoning, optimising vibrant international commercial activities. The core ring integrates international retail streets, high-end border-crossing TOD facilities, and cultural centres whilst the middle ring provides amenities including hospitals, schools, and residences. The outer ring is a cradle for high-tech industries, enhancing their productivity and efficiency through a humane working environment. The district is comprehensively planned, creating a mixed-use destination that gathers talent and provides diverse professional services to citizens.
Through scientific research on the environment, an ecological and people-centric district is created by optimising the balance among wind, light, heat, and sound. The proposal implements 17 carbon-neutral environmental measures to construct an all-round low-carbon system, consisting of carbon-free buildings, energy-efficient transport, new energy consumption, green industries, low-carbon lifestyles, and establishment of natural carbon sink.
The district marks itself as an integrated area of Beijing and a gateway to the world by means of strategic positioning, greenery and water resources planning, traffic structure, and spatial experience. With a functional layout, three zonings are outlined to integrate the TOD with waterfront space, weave the whole district by interconnected pavements, and deliver a public realm for cultural icons and venues. Jinzhan International Cooperation Service District is designed to be a place-making hub and liveable community with a vision of advancing high-tech industries and international exchange.
As the only municipal administrative centre of Guangzhou, Nansha New District is leading the future to be a free trade zone as the main linkage between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. Hengli Island, in particular, has been labelled an international financial island, acting as the most integral part of the financial blueprint in activating Pearl Bay, and shall serve as the benchmark for the future CBD of Nansha. Entrusted by China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, Ken Wai, Global Design Principal of Aedas, led the team to create a new landmark that strikes the city’s landscape.
The mixed-use project comprises a kindergarten, three low-rise buildings of mainly commercial uses by the riverbank, two mid-rise buildings for residential, commercial and public service use in the middle and four high-rise upscale residential towers towards the northern plot. By incorporating an unobstructed river view and vibrant city life with comprehensive amenities, the project forms a green oasis with close proximity to city living.
The project is a rare find within the city’s financial district, especially with an indulging panoramic view of the river. Located by the riverside of Hengli Island, Nansha District, a planned road runs across the plot and divides it in two. The south side of the plot is adjacent to the riverside ecological green corridor, where residents may enjoy a multi-layered river scenery from different viewpoints. Overlooking the estuary to the east and an endless stretch of river to the west, the plot attains a mesmerising unobscured view of the riverfront. The west and north sides of the plot are office building areas which link to the landmarks in the CBD. Being merely 600 metres away from the IFF Conference Centre, the project allows for city viewing from a prime perspective.
The project has posed several challenges to the team such as requesting a wide scope of functional uses and a high floor area ratio. To maximise flexibility, the design blueprint is altered in a way that different functions are dispersed across the plot to strike a balance between the need for functionality and the users’ spatial comfort. By distributing the buildings by the perimeter, most units can enjoy an all-embracing view of the river. The area is tied together with a central public void adorned with multilevel vegetation. It irrigates and connects different spaces through its porosity, energising the plot to provide an active public response and environmental benefits. Apart from enriching the greening of the residential area, the void coheres with the ecological environment of the city as well. A striking skyline that lights up the riverside is finally achieved with a multi-dimensional layout of buildings with disparate heights.
The design extends the urban vitality axis by Jinger Road to link it to the riverbank and local landscape. A portal that acts as a symmetrical axis is formed to echo the design language, achieving an airy and open environment by utilising sunlight and greenery. Individual corridors are also formed in their respective plots to penetrate the riverside landscape into the northern plots, creating an exemplar in blending the urban living experience with natural sceneries.
The team has drawn inspiration from the tip of Hengli Island that points towards the estuary, hence marking “Cloud Palace Above Sea” as the design concept. Comparing the building to a giant cruise ship sailing in the wind, the tower constantly overlooks the river and the vast sea, enjoying the gift of nature from the water and the sky. Through research on spatial structure, layout, and sunlight, the design team fully simulated the shape and viewing experience from a cruise, creating well-proportioned buildings to ensure that the view of the lavish landscape is maximised.
The façade of the residential tower is comprised of aluminium plates, reflecting the surrounding sea and sky. The overall design focuses on adjusting viewing angles to reduce visual obstructions between units, ensuring that the riverscape is accessible to most, to create a top-tier riverfront apartment. The viewing dock at the crown of the tower is ingeniously designed, offering a picturesque view of the river, while enriching the residential experience. Both residential towers stay true to the essence of the design concept in mimicking an experience on a cruise – the balcony itself resembles the viewing deck where you may immerse in the surrounding waters, and savour every moment of life by the river.
Aedas Global Design Principal Ken Wai remarks, “The balance between man and nature is deemed fundamental in the design of residential buildings. Architectural designs should uphold the belief of being people-oriented, directing them to explore the most primitive habitat combined with the pursuit of quality of life and modernity, in order to meet one’s vision of ideal lives.”
