Fuzhou Hengjie Heritage Intervention

Today, Wenchangli District is the most complete cultural area in the city of Fuzhou. In Song dynasty, Hengjie Street was the main road leading from Wenchang Bridge to Zhengjue Temple. It was the starting point for the development of the whole riverside district, north and south. During the Minguo period it incorporated the Catholic church and other notable landmark buildings. After 1949, its urban situation experienced a fracture with the development of new large scale residential buildings.

The central concept of this intervention project is the protection of the built and unbuilt heritage, and its gradual improvement, preserving the cultural and architectural values while organically incorporating business and commercial functions related to tourism.
The protection of the existing buildings and cultural experiences has the purpose of maintaining the existing sense of history, time and way of life. A step-by-step development improves the heritage in phases recovering the original culture and gradually increasing the content of experiences, according to the growth of demand in a reasonable combination.
The working background is formed by three main sources: The intervention level of the preservation planning done by CAUPD with historical and cultural background study; the architectural measurements, on-site discussion, technical exploration and analysis; and the commercial strategy and product definition.

The three main elements are combined to create a “New Hengjie Street”, based on: The physical heritage (i.e. the preserved and restored architecture and landscape); the cultural heritage (with the high culture of Linchuan and the local historical functions of the past); and the new touristic vision (with commercial functions necessary to attract and serve visitors).
The plaza at the main crossing is the heart of Hengjie Street. It embodies the most important values of the district in a warm and lively, elegant outdoor space: Mudanting Plaza.
The noblest Minguo and Gan style facades are restored and brought to view, linking them to Linchuan high culture – as elegant Hotel and Library.
All the historical functions are recovered, the bank and traditional craft workshops as exhibit spaces mixed with restaurant or cafés.

To the east we encounter the fabric arts and crafts area, marked by the Fabric Arts Plaza at the crossing of Dongxiangcang Street, where the Gan style façade buildings on both sides of the plaza are restored and repurposed as restaurant, boutique hotel and fabric arts workshops.
The main research and analysis was focused on finding an identity for Hengjie Street and covered the history of the Wenchangli district, its urban character and potential, its architecture and landscape heritage, and its own function of commercial history.
The urban role of the Hengjie Street sector is to create connections between the areas north and south to form a complete Wenchangli historic cultural district, incorporating all existing resources, serving as a “Linchuan cultural window”.

The existing situation reveals different conditions and architectural styles of different value. The preservation strategy will guide the intervention with the goal to highlight these values.
The architectural heritage is mainly expressed in the facades. The facade analysis revealed 42% Gan style, 36% mixed or damaged, 4% Minguo style, and 18% post 1949 modern.
In order to strengthen and highlight the architectural values, facades are restored, repaired and rebuilt, eliminating those with no value, reinforcing the historical character of Hengjie Street. Some modern elements are added to achieve a diverse, realistic town atmosphere. After the intervention, 80% is related to historical style, 7% is Minguo style, 6% is demolished for public spaces and 10% are modern elements.
Another source of identity is the original mix of commercial functions of Hengjie Street, which still rests in the memory of its oldest inhabitants. These functions are recovered and integrated as tourist resource, as exhibition spaces and workshops in combination with cafés and restaurants.

In the first stage of development and intervention, nodes 1 and 2 can demonstrate the strategy.

Node 1

The first operation is the creation of new urban connections required to improve connectivity and cultural synergy from north to south.
A new plaza marks the main crossing of Hengjie Street with this new north south connection. Both plaza and new alleys also reveal Ming walls, previously hidden to view.
The existing functions are recovered and restored as exhibition spaces with art workshops related to the traditional crafts sold on these properties.
The buildings with strong architectural value are preserved as relic houses.
A new boutique hotel is proposed, restoring the important Minguo and Gan style facades and preserving interior layouts, whereas in the deteriorated areas only the original spatial layout is preserved for new guestroom functions.

Node 2

On the crossing of Hengjie Street and Dongxiangcang Street, another plaza is proposed, demolishing modern buildings of limited value.
The existing craft shops are restored into the memory of visitors by repairing and rebuilding two fabric workshops.
A sculptural setting is created in the plaza.
Other buildings are restored as cafés, restaurants and youth hostel, in an alley which – in the future – will connect to the Central Plaza of the whole Wenchangli District.

Intellectual Property Publishing House

The plot is located in the north-western part of Beijing and is defined by streets on two sides:
A still-to-be-built main road in its north connecting the Second Ring Road (encompassing the ancient city centre) with the National Library area, and a smaller street in the west leading to the north gate of the Beijing Zoo.
By concentrating the building in the east side of the plot, it receives wider east-west facades which are favorable to an office building, even in China where south orientation is almost a must.
RhineScheme decided to take advantage of the particular plot features by positioning a large public square at the street corner. An open – and relatively protected – sunken plaza bounded by a simple landscape design will create a place for meeting and relaxation, giving a distinct name card to the owner-investor and to its cultural matrix.

The first three floors and the first underground floor of the 60-meters-tower are for retail and catering, while the remaining twelve levels provide office space. As an answer to the quite particular company culture, the main semipublic functions such as bar-restaurant, exhibition area and conference hall are placed in the top floor. Other areas for meeting and communication are appropriately located close to several overlooking terraces.
The company’s identity is reflected in the skin of the building which makes a clear distinction between (semi-)public areas and the places for work. Since IPPH mainly deals with publishing, the office facades create the vivid image of a book shelf, with bigger and smaller, thinner and wider volumes.
The project centers on the concept of cultural exchange, and on a well-going interrelation between different functions and users and between public, semi-public and private spheres.

Xixi Park Zero Energy Building

Beside that it accommodates a branch of Zhejiang University and is used as eco-environmental education area with classrooms and offices. Last not least it provides meeting and catering areas for both tourists and students.
The new building – as entrance point passed by the majority of visitors – is aimed to be an outstanding landmark, a symbol for the ecological efforts connected with the wetland park, serving as an icon or logo for the whole area and showing its ecological progressiveness in a self-confident manner.

Beside the memorable triangular shape of the building, its vast glass roof covering the exhibition area – inclined in south-west direction for best serving the integrated photovoltaic panels – is the main mark of the architecture, from inside and outside.

Furthermore, the spacious green roof, freely passable for visitors from outside, serves as a space for tourists and students to walk, rest end enjoy views to the wetland park.
Whereas the roofscape is inspired by the silhouette of the distant mountains, the significant wooden sun protection elements of the facades connect the building directly to the ground, to its lush vegetation and big variety of trees. The density of the vertical wooden louvers depends on their orientation: south and west façades are more closed; the north façade is mostly opened.

Last not least, the energetic performance of the building will make it a milestone on the way to more energy-efficiency and sustainability. The project has been certified with the highest LEED label (‘platinum’). Moreover, it is intended that this building achieves zero emission of carbon dioxide as well as zero energy consumption – or even energy production instead of consumption.

Jinan Sunac Hotel Group

The hotel complex comprises several hotels and facilities with distinct features:

The “Wanda Vista” 6 star hotel (including Main Lobby Building, Spa building, 3 types of luxurious villas, as well as one presidential villa); the “Wanda Realm” 5 star hotel; furthermore a Conference Center and a “Confucius” theme hotel; finally a Bar Street overlooking the Hancang River.

Jinan has beautiful natural scenery, where many spring waters converge, with unique views many poets wrote about. Based on a specific historical and cultural environment, Jinan’s residential architecture has both the simplicity and weight of the Northern building style and the lightness and transparency of the Canal Towns south of the Yangtze River. RhineScheme’s design is based on these bivalent features.
Typical Northern-Chinese traditional buildings have been taken as reference, whose main architectural features are the ‘XieShan’ type of double-pitched roofs, heavy stone walls and a lively wooden façade design. These features have been adequately translated into the design of a mountain hotel. On the other hand, lightness is achieved in the treatment of architectural details.
The site itself is 10 meters below street level, which posed a challenge in the master planning stage.
Visitors will approach the resort area through a mountain road, where the scenery changes step by step. The master plan necessarily involved the landscape design, due to the pronounced level difference between the site and the surrounding planned streets. Also the slope of the site itself had to be considered (which is in fact the mountain piedmont), in order to achieve favourable unblocked views towards the east.
The topography of the site led to the placement of the higher and larger buildings on the top line close to the mountain skirt. The smaller buildings, i.e. the villas, descend towards the lower levels, with the conference center on the lowest. Across the street, the Bar Street area and Hancang River valley are limiting the complex.

The design of the hotel complex reflects Confucian culture in a refined and clear manner.
Both the main lobby building of the 6 star hotel and the 5 star hotel are aligned on the west side, creating an articulated and charming image, echoing itself the profile of Lianhua Mountain behind them.
Between the two hotels, the spa building serves as connector. Towards the east, the villas are arranged in parallel rows, organized along two artificial valleys that create open views: one in the axis of the hotel lobby, the other one leading down from the 5 star hotel building.
The overall design is like an epitome of the old city; it creates a unique and meaningful resort by following terrain and culture.

6* hotel
The lobby of the Six Star Hotel is a two-storey building that stretches horizontally across the natural water level. Combined with the infinity pool and the falling water feature, it achieves the effect of a wonderland – outdoor and indoor – like in an old Chinese painting. The building is kept in a so-called ‘new Chinese style’. The stretched flat-topped building is dotted with five different antique slope roofs. The top of the lobby adopts the traditional form of the ‘XieShan’ type double-pitched roof, thick but elegant. The falling water forms a contrast between vertical height difference and horizontal architectural form, and a contrast between vividness and tranquility. The combination of flat roof and sloped roof pays a direct tribute to the classic architecture of China during the 1950s and 1960s, at the same time gaining economic advantages.
Moving down the road there is a group of totally 75 villas, planned in accordance with the rich topography of the sloping terrain. Each villa has a broad view, while being hidden between green hills and trees.
The elegance of the entrance lobbies is in harmony with the general flexibility of the villas.

5* hotel
The “Wanda Realm” 5 star hotel consists of 250 suites. The entrance canopy forms a building interspersed among two wooden blocks. Together with the first floor colonnade and a ‘Xieshan’ type of roof it creates an atmosphere of classic Chinese culture.
The public area stands above the first valley. The valley falls suddenly and the height of the building rises sharply. In order to avoid the impression of an excessive building volume, the higher levels’ rooms are made of light-coloured wooden blocks, whereas the ground level rooms have a white coloured base. Finally, dark-coloured wooden areas and glass railings connect the two surfaces in order to create a light, almost floating building volume.
The “Wanda Realm” hotel – facing the street and with its backside close to the valley – expresses an elaborated architectural momentum, at the same time creating the required holiday atmosphere of a mountain hotel.

4* theme hotel
Still under development

Bar Street
Jinan Bar Street, along with the unique historical culture and humanist spirit of the city, echoes the city’s natural landscape system with “four sides of lotus and three willowy sides, of a city of mountains with a half city lake”.
The design takes the “spring” as the main topic and by that highlights the characteristics of the city. The bar street adopts traditional Chinese architectural style, extending the traditional vocabulary of old Jinan architecture and folk custom, creating a culture style bar street with the integration of spring and water, and the blending of history and contemporary habits.

Jinan Bar Street is designed for business, tourism and culture at the same time. By integrating different situational blocks, four main themes related with spring water have been developed: watching and tasting water, playing with water and listening to the sound of water.
The uses are: folk culture experience, high-end catering, entertainment and leisure, public facilities, exhibition, scenic or stage settings, and other formats.
The buildings’ elevations have been designed according to the geographical location of the project and the inherent cultural connotations. The bar street adopts the ancient architectural style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. At the same time, it integrates local and traditional cultural symbols of Jinan and contemporary facade techniques.

‘IN-Beijing’ SOHO | Block D

This sunken court by its whole appearance is not a space for public transit like a mall, but turn-table and meeting point between those coming from outside with those living there, between those turning home with those leaving. For the occupants of one of the four blocks it is the place for meeting one another in the common heart of their residential area. The central court is their territory, and this experience makes each inhabitant feel as a part of this special community, feel at home and safe.
This centre of the development is intended to become an eye-catcher, unique in design and atmosphere, but at the same time casual, convenient, and pleasant: a blend of architecture and landscape. This is the reason for its distinct shape, something between mountain and building, opening up into an intimate inner circle with a fountain murmuring in the middle.

Once the residents are entering their own block, they are turning the back towards the outdoor world: The single block is their personal environment, clearly different from any of the other three blocks around with regard to colours, materials, architectural design and landscaping. The single block is something like the common living room for the closer neighbourhood whose terraces and front yards are bordering the interior court. It is the place for people who are inevitably sharing the rhythm of daily life.
For the sake of creating distinct identities inside the huge floor space program, the four blocks are as different as possible while still following a unifying contemporary architectural language:
They firmly represent the four seasons as main theme, each of them according to their location (winter is north, autumn is west etc.). The superposed seasonal theme is visible from outside, from colours, materials and structure of the facades, via surfaces and plants in the individual courtyards, up to details of the interior design of the public areas.

Suzhou Marina Cove Gardens

Simple shapes and forms, clear volumes and a reduced selection of materials (mainly white plaster, partly light-colour wooden panels and dark-grey aluminum) define the character of the buildings in sharp contrast to the usual high-end residential projects in China.

29 town houses and detached villas as well as 8 apartment buildings, totally 6 different building types, 3 to 4 levels high, are grouped along artificial canals and ponds, all enjoying splendid views towards the water scenery of Jinji Lake.

Changchun Green Experience-Mall

The Mall is conveniently located only a few hundred meters from the new High-Speed Railway Station of Changchun, capital city of China’s Jilin Province with four million inhabitants. This is a major boon to the team as for the last several years, China has formed – and is now leading – the era of the high-speed railway on an international level. The successful operation of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway has promoted the rapid economic development of the cities of Jinan and Suzhou and the Beijing-Harbin high-speed railway has achieved unprecedented prosperity in Harbin’s West District and Shenyang’s Shenbei District.

Relying on the advantages of this new transportation hub will gradually grow a center of commerce, and with it a center of life. “Queenland Mall” will create a business cluster for LOHAS-style consumers, a commercial entity that is the sheer opposite of one-time sales.

Changchun has clear advantages in North-East China. It is located in the geometric center of the four Northern provinces. Shenyang and Harbin can be reached within half an hour; Beijing is only 3.5 hours away. This creates an industrial circle around Changchun’s high-speed railway station with a 60 million passengers’ flow every year, and along with it: economic growth and prosperity.

Key to the design process of “Queenland Green Mall” is the huge flower and green plant trading center, filled with spacious indoor Greens, a plant-themed museum, thousands of trees and shrubs, and more than 1,200 different plants. Its natural vegetation makes it an ecological resort where flowers never fall throughout the year, an oasis in the rather harsh winter climate of the North of China.

As a “Green Mall” with international orientation, Queenland Mall will kick off a commercial benchmark for the fourth consumer era. The Mall has a laudable goal – to abandon premium brand consumption habits and pay more attention to the shopping and life-style experience of a new generation of consumers. The Mall aims rather at an ecological, “green” construction and operation model, in line with the principle of simplicity and shared consumerism, and with the intention to somehow repair body and mind of customers and visitors and enhance their mental experience.

More than only providing a green cloak, the building complex will create an urban resort integrating tourism, sightseeing, experience, adventure, wellness, culture, life-style, entertainment and ecology. The group of buildings has a clear aim: Being the virtual centre of the TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) surrounding the High Speed Railway Station. This formidable project will be a center that caters to the needs of citizens 24/7 all around the year. It will be a hub that never sleeps and that is always stimulating.

The finished building combines 148,000 m² of commercial areas as well as 36,000 m² of small-scale apartments located in two residential towers on top of the mall. The mall itself is composed of three individual buildings, connected by bridges and surrounding an inner urban plaza. All three blocks have their own central atrium; the biggest, L-shaped building provides an oversized atrium which is formed as a glass-covered open space with a green mountain in its centre, all wrapped in lush vegetation.

Included in the building’s many functions are an underground hot spring spa centre, a huge food court and seafood market, all kinds of indoor sports facilities including swimming and adventure sports, a spacious plants market in the upper floors shaped like a botanical Green, book stores, various kinds of retailers, entertainment facilities, banquet halls for weddings and more, and – last not least – a multitude of F&B outlets in different levels.

Creating a “Queenland”, a new type of Green Mall, a wonderland for a contemporary generation of consumers, is a challenge for all involved parties. High quality in planning, construction and operation is only one side of the coin; locating the Mall by the nearby HSR Station will certainly contribute to its success.

RhineScheme’s longest lasting professional experience is and has been in Europe, but its biggest and most challenging projects and clients are to be found in China, as China is still the largest construction market in the world. Working for the Chinese market is often connected with enormous time pressure and with highly complex tasks that are unheard of in Europe. Nonetheless RhineScheme has steadily improved its reputation in this difficult market and is proud of having achieved a high reputation in planning complex mixed-use projects, tourism developments, smart cities and eco-cities, urban regeneration and conversion projects.

Looking to the future, both RhineScheme and Qingyifang Group are keen to find creative developers or property owners for challenging retail projects, in which the companies can bring special Eurasian experiences, combining the Asian sense of hospitality and efficiency with the enduring ingenuity of Europe. This aim will help both companies to grow and establish themselves as international experts in real estate business over the years ahead.

Dalian Wanda Mall

The design inspiration comes from the natural elements of stones, water and greenery. Six volumes, like pebbles in a brook, are connected by flowing curves and integrated into the topography of the mining pit. The whole image resembles water stones on green fields.
The third floor of the mall is connected with a professional football field planned to be located on the west side. The east is adjacent to the planned Wanda Hotel group including a big conference center. People standing on the terraces can see the southeast urban eco-park which covers the entire lowest level of the mining pit. On the south side a large parking area meets the requirements of the public function.
The building envelope is formed by multiple layers which resemble the original surrounding environment, creating excellent outdoor viewing terraces. Several large spatial domes are inserted like pebbles on the water.
The internal shopping street is interconnecting 5 theme parks and an independent show stage space, creating a distinct circulation with rich indoor and outdoor spatial experiences. The three underground floors facing the southern lower levels of the pit are for parking and supporting areas.
The façade of the building is inspired by water flows, having natural curves and depth, while also producing different folds and vertical changes that enrich the visual experience.
Here, architecture is transformed into a flowing, soft and natural element with a strong character, providing transparency, privacy, or connections. The building itself and its surrounding special geographical environment contributes to establish Wanda Mall as a major urban landmark for Dalian.

Commercial Street Design

In order to gain differentiation advantage in combat with surrounding rivals and attract young consumers, we have adopted a futuristic façade with a strong sense of technology. Smooth metal curves, transparent glass curtain walls and glamorous illumination give the architectures a unique modern feel. The concept of urban valley is inspired by architectures interweaving with urban attributes, allowing customers to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of the city and instantly immerse themselves in the enchanting valley.

When it comes to our design strategy, on the one hand, our design idea is divergent, on the other hand, the design team also paid attention to moderation and logic. In order to control the project budget, a strategy of zoning design and modular design was adopted. The sky platform will be used as a design interface to clearly demarcate individual commercial building from the urban valley area.

The placement of multiple waterscapes creates a sense of harmony between nature and human. The flow of water and the solidity of the valley bring people a pleasant and comfortable environment.

Changchun Wanda Mall

The buildings are organized through the perimeter of the plot, so to give space to various landscape areas and outdoor parking in the core of the plot. The main actor of the project is surely the indoor ski ramp, considering its 110 m height that in the future will make it as one of the most iconic buildings of Changchun. Considering its function the concept of the project it’s inspired by snowy mountains, articulating the design of the ski ramp and the mall through soft wavy shapes and cold colours like light grey, pearl grey and different tones of blue. Generous glass openings characterize all the buildings in order to establish a visual connection to the road that is strengthened by a system of plazas located to the main entrances of the buildings.