Designed by Liu Haowei and CAA Architects, North·Yard is the first completed phase of the Beijing Collaborative Innovation Park in the north-western Haidian district. The project translates landscape imagery and low-carbon strategies into a large-scale office complex at the foot of Beijing's Western Hills.
Context and masterplan
Covering approximately 12 hectares with a total floor area of 288,000 square meters, the Beijing Collaborative Innovation Park forms part of the northern expansion of Zhongguancun, a major national technology district, and is listed among Beijing’s 100 Key Science and Technology Innovation Projects. Since 2020, Liu Haowei, founder of CAA Architects, has led the master planning and architectural design. Grounded in Haowei’s concept of Oriental Futurism, the plan establishes a Shanshui Valley — a landscape-inspired axis structuring the three development plots: West·Mountain, North·Yard, and East·Creek.
North·Yard, the largest and first completed phase (approximately 111,000 square meters, completed in June 2025), interprets the traditional courtyard and layered mountain profiles as an urban ensemble known as the “Mountain Courtyard.” Tower forms rise from a cloud-like podium ring, creating a horizontal interface informed by courtyard typologies while maintaining a dialogue with the Western Hills.
Landscape integration and multi-level spatial system
North·Yard establishes a multi-dimensional pedestrian network through terraced setbacks, elevated podiums, planted roof gardens, ground-level aerial links, and fluid stair connections to the sunken courtyard and underground parking. The system enables clear separation between pedestrians and vehicles while generating intermediary outdoor spaces that mediate interior and exterior climates.
The project achieves a greening rate of 40 percent, forming a vertical city garden that resonates with the Western and Fragrant Hills. From mid-slope vantage points, internal landscapes visually merge with surrounding terrain, producing a continuous field in which water-like forms guide circulation and spatial rhythm. This progression — from the fluid Shanshui Valley to the cloud-like podium ring and the more assertive tower massing — conveys a transition from softness to strength and from natural landscape towards a technological future.
As described by lead architect Liu Haowei: “Walking through North·Yard, rivers flow beneath the mountains, clouds encircle their peaks, and above the clouds lies a verdant wonderland.”
Envelope strategy and carbon considerations
Across North·Yard, an irregular yet deliberately lightweight construction approach reduces overall material mass, limiting the use of concrete and steel. This strategy is applied consistently to towers and podiums, where structural rationalization and efficient core layouts were developed through economic and spatial modeling.
The complex uses a unitized facade system: high-performance transparent units exceed current Chinese green-building requirements, while opaque spandrel areas consist of double-layer fluorocarbon-coated aluminum panels on anodized aluminum brackets. Behind the panels, an air cavity enables natural airflow that dissipates radiant heat during summer conditions and reduces thermal stress on the primary facade.
At below-grade levels, GRC cladding offers a lighter alternative to metal, marking the transition between underground and surface environments while reducing embodied carbon associated with heavier materials. A VMU (Verification Mock-Up) curtain-wall system with near-standardized facade nodes reduces on-site waste, limits repeat sampling, and supports disassembly and potential future reuse, reinforcing circular-economy objectives.
Operational performance
Solar control is a core component of the environmental strategy. The tower trellis system is calibrated through solar modeling for Beijing’s north-west orientation, with shading elements set to a 150-millimeter depth and spaced at 250, 350, 450, and 850 millimeters to balance daylight penetration and glare across seasons. The system references the landscape imagery of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, abstracting layered mountain forms into facade geometry while delivering measurable shading performance.
The podium roof — with roughly 50 percent green coverage and soil depths exceeding 600 millimeters — improves thermal buffering and forms a planted corridor connecting the towers. At the site scale, the sunken courtyard introduces daylight and ventilation to the underground commercial zone, softening enclosure and supporting environmental continuity. The underground commercial plaza, conceived as a wind corridor, uses a streamlined profile to enhance natural ventilation and mitigate heat-island effects in dense urban microclimates.
Circularity and programmatic flexibility
Height parameters and core-tube dimensions were optimized to balance rentable area with material economy. Based on market projections for the Beijing Xishan Digital Industry Belt, a proportional distribution of GLA was established for commercial and office components.
The podium operates as an adaptable workplace framework, using a systematic modular grid that allows office units to be subdivided or recombined, accommodating SMEs and collaborative work models while supporting long-term programmability without major reconstruction.
Strategic use of underground space increases usable area without exceeding FAR constraints. The sunken courtyard introduces openness and circulation permeability, linking below-grade functions to the urban realm and establishing a shared commercial and social hub.
