SPARK wins the mixed-use category at the 24th annual Architectural Review MIPIMFuture Project Awards 2014, which were conferred on 12 March in Cannes. TheVanke Jiugong project (Beijing) has been recognised for its intricate mixing of retail,leisure, entertainment, and office programmes, and for the strong urbanconnections and experiences it proposes through its inversion of the shopping malltypology.
Currently under construction in Beijing’s rapidly redeveloping southern suburbs,Vanke Jiugong marks a continuation of SPARK’s investigations into the breaking upof the architectural mass of the shopping mall, and the forging of connectionsbetween ‘interiorised’ space and the city. The 127,000sqm development willincorporate a mall, a cinema, three live-work towers, and a separate retail pavilion,with a pedestrian bridge connection to an adjacent train station.
“A lot of our projects are about impacting the city with architecture – usingarchitecture as a means of urban design,” explains SPARK Director Jan FelixClostermann. “This is especially true when we design shopping malls, whichtraditionally completely turn their backs on the city. In the context of China, wherethere is very little urban public space, we typically try to extend the city into thebuilding,” he says.
At Vanke Jiugong, SPARK has essentially designed three ground levels. The schemeproposes a perforated and penetrable building mass of interlocking components ofvarious scales. A base retail block (with traditional curvilinear ‘race-track’circulation) is prised open with glazing and voids at its periphery and piercedinternally by two large conical voids, which draw daylight downward into the centreof the building mass and forge visual connections between levels. A sleek whitepalette contributes to a seamless and flowing retail environment.
On levels four and five, these volumes terminate with a second ‘ground plane’ – avillage of restaurants in an orthogonally planned zone expressed with an alternatematerial treatment of timber and traditional terazzo tiles. Above is a third ‘groundplane’ – an environment akin to a miniaturised business park, where small officepavilions and larger live-work towers rise from a roof garden. “Level six will be a bitlike a hutong in the sky,” says Clostermann, with the fragmented open areas of thegarden taking a character similar to courtyards and available for the enjoyment ofoffice users and the wider public.
The cinema, positioned at one end of level six, will be connected to an external 24-hour circulation route that traverses the façade to allow direct access to and fromthe entertainment zone after shopping hours. While preventing the disconcertingexperience of circulating through a ‘dead’ mall after hours, the external circulatoryroute will also enliven the exterior of the building, bringing vitality to its principalstreet façade.
The fragmented mass and reorganised volume of the development was inspired byThe Tower of Babel – a sixteenth-century artwork by Peter Bruegel the Elder. Thevertical ‘street life’ depicted on the painted tower and the perforation of its massportray an expressiveness that SPARK wishes to capture for Vanke Jiugong. Adouble-layered façade incorporating a sinusoidal corrugated perforated aluminiumscreen will assist in the achievement of an engaging building face. Says VankeExecutive Vice President Mao Daqing, “The ideas of the vertical expression of activityand the interweaving of functions are among the key factors that led to Vanke’sappointment of SPARK for this project.”
The approach taken to the massing of mixed-use at Vanke Jiugong builds on thatexplored by SPARK in previous projects such as the Vision City scheme for KualaLumpur, Raffles City Beijing, and Fuzhou Wusibei Thaihot Plaza. This is SPARK’sthird win in the annual MIPIM awards programme, having previously receivedaccolades for Jing Mian Xin Cheng in the ‘Best Office and Business Development’category in 2013, and for Shanghai International Cruise Terminal in the ‘Best MixedUse’ category at MIPIM Asia in 2011.
Says Mao, “This ‘Best Mixed-use Award’ is testament to the tremendous efforts byVanke to realise its positioning and rebranding as a developer that services the city.”Adapting to city growth and changing needs, Vanke Retail has extended its focusfrom local communities to the entire city. “This is the third Vanke retail developmentin Beijing,” he adds, “and a lot of expectations were placed on the project right fromthe beginning.” SPARK’s abandonment of the traditional shopping model andemphasis on the connection of internal shopping spaces with the city speaks ofVanke’s advanced ideas and international ambitions.
