The gut-renovation opens the former closed-off complex to the public by creating social spaces at multiple-levels, and merging interior with exterior.

The design welcomes the public in through a series of large architectural gestures: the basement retail is opened to the sky; new glowing masses (“lanterns”) guide pedestrians through; heavily built parts are cut out; and many interior spaces extend to outdoor terraces.

This approach takes on sculptural form in the entrance-facing facade, which is carved into a vertical climbing garden, breaking down the massive scale of the 35m (115ft) tall building and creating a very dynamic, interactive public space with views over the city.

Cost-analyses resulted in material and construction design changes: water features were transformed into symbolic glowing glass elements; the design of the glowing “lanterns” was simplified, including losing the glass roofs; and the vertical planted walls were removed, keeping only the planters.

It was very challenging to create inviting scuptural spaces within a very rigid existing multi-story structure.

I worked on the development of the stepping garden terrace area and the atrium with the glass roofs, and on coordinating the structural and the massive amounts of required emergency exiting with Jerde’s design intent. I also developed and coordinated the plans, which – with the large amount stepping back-and-forth, cut-outs, and inside-outside variation over 9 stories (7 above ground and 2 basement) – are quite complex.


ARCHITECT

The Jerde Partnership (Eduardo Lopez, Project Principal)

IOANA URMA’s ROLE

Design consultant, DD Phase: Developed stepping garden terrace and glass-roof atrium; coordinated structural & emergency exiting with design intent; developed & coordinated plans.

SITE

Daxing District, Beijing, China

MATERIALS & DIMENSIONS

  • · 9 stories: 7 retail above ground + 1 retail below ground + 1 parking below ground
  • · 805,000 sq ft (almost 75,000 sqm)

IMAGE CREDITS

Drawings (featured on this page): Ioana Urma. Photographs: The Jerde Partnership.

Colored roof plan of the 8 level mixed-use center showing how it terraces down on many sides, with rooftop plazas and grand stairways, 
                                                        and how the outdoor plaza on the basement floor is exposed to the sky, snaking into the shopping center from the north.
Interior courtyard of mixed-use center framed by 3-7 story “boxes” of glass and light beige stone, filled with people and some landscaped elements like trees and grasses, glowing-renov in the twilight hours.
Sculptural entry to shopping center shows large stacked stone clad volumes supported by a large round column several stories up, 
                                                            a colorful glowing glass wall at its base, and a glowing glass wall on its left.
Colored program plan of basement level B01 at -6.2m, showing mostly food and beverage, a few retail, and a big grocery anchor. Colored program plan of plan leve L01 at +0.0m, showing mostly retail, plus 4 food and beverage, and two anchors. 
                                            Diagonal pedestrian walk which cuts through existing buildings is very visible.

The plans show the challenge of carving through existing buildings and structures.

Long view, centered at the ground level, into the slow descent into the basement level retail area which is open to the sky. 
                                                                    The backlight glass wall along the grand staircase down glows bright white, suggestive of a waterfall. 
                                                                    The center is clad in a light beige stone which is lit to glow at twilight.
Colored program plan of plan leve L01 at +0.0m, showing mostly retail, plus 4 food and beverage, and two anchors. 
                                        Diagonal pedestrian walk which cuts through existing buildings is very visible.
Colored program plan of basement level B01 at -6.2m, showing mostly food and beverage, a few retail, and a big grocery anchor.

The plans show the challenge of carving through existing buildings and structures.

Aerial view of the North zone terraced landscape plazas showing how they cascade down and connect to each other. 
                                                            The walls and stairs and clad in stone, and often bordered by planters. 
                                                            The terraces have wood floors.
A man holds a toddler girl’s hand, standing at the top of a stone staircase, with green planters and trees all around, and against a backdrop of glass volumes that rise up several stories.
Detailed design sections: a colored building section through the entrance five-story glass atrium “lantern”, 
                                                                    and two section details of the materials of the green stepping terraces: stone, metal, and vine-supporting structures.

Pushing design development through detailed studies safeguards the main concepts during value engineering, even if the details themselves are changed.

A colored building section through the entrance five-story glass atrium “lantern”.
Two section details of the materials of the green stepping terraces: stone, metal, and vine-supporting structures.

Pushing design development through detailed studies safeguards the main concepts during value engineering, even if the details themselves are changed.

Lowered twilight aerial view of the multi-story shopping center – glowing glass and stone volumes and a glowing glass bridge – 
                                                            with many people in the ground floor plaza; historic temple on the lower right; and high-rise buildings in the background on the right.
Tall glowing glass volume with glowing glass bridge on its left and stone volumes 
                                        on its right seen in the distance beyond round plant forms in the foreground and a historic temple on the right.

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