‘Wenzhou Taishun International Movie Town’ is located in a rural, mountainous tourist area in Taishun County. By bus, the planned development is about 1.5 hours away from Wenzhou downtown; by bullet train it takes only 1 hour.

The project – partly invested by CCTV – aims at an alternative concept for the mushrooming so-called ‘movie towns’ all over China. It tries to avoid the mistakes of unilateral and unbalanced developments which either do not integrate the functional chains of movie and/or tourism industry sufficiently, or which end up in greatly artificial environments with cheap and unsteady character.

Location
Wenzhou / China
Client
Zhonghui Joint Investment and Fund Management Co., Ltd.
Design
2011-2013
Gross Floor Area
3.5 million m²
Land area
3.47 km²
Major target of the concept is the movie industry in a comprehensive functional chain, i.e. from the shooting to the public release of a movie, integrating to some extent tourism and real estate development. A mix of film-shooting, movie tourism, event culture, leisure and entertainment as well as high-end wellness and vacation is the aim. …

Major target of the concept is the movie industry in a comprehensive functional chain, i.e. from the shooting to the public release of a movie, integrating to some extent tourism and real estate development. A mix of film-shooting, movie tourism, event culture, leisure and entertainment as well as high-end wellness and vacation is the aim. Eventually, the project will create a real new town in the region, for a more or less permanent population of at least 40,000 inhabitants.

The Central Area of the movie town is the pivot of the entire project operation and development. It is the dense and busy focus, with starred hotels and serviced apartments, with commercial and entertainment streets and – above all – a themed plaza in its middle with a fascinating amalgam of facilities for public events, as unique and memorable landmark. Moreover the Central Area provides commercial trading and operation for up- and downstream industries of the movie production chain.

4 themed development areas encircling the Central Area serve as carrier of movie culture and tourism: Coming from the ‘Tourist Service Center’ as initial point, visitors will firstly explore the European-style ‘Western Movie Town’ starting with a typical European square and special features of Western architecture. Further in the east, the new Film University for about 7,000 students will serve for education and for film-shooting as well.

The ‘Republican Theme Movie Town’ will create an image of the early days of the Republic of China during the 1920s and 1930s, in historical settings of mainly Old Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The ‘Ming/Qing Theme Movie Town’ will focus on the architectural and street style of Ming and Qing dynasties, including Chinese classical gardens. Finally the ‘Song Theme Movie Town’ takes its inspiration from the famous painting of a ‘Riverside Scene of Pure Brightness’, making water become its main subject.

Each area combines film-shooting and tourism, with separate entrances and without disrupting each other. Each provides a ‘one-stop’ functional area for movie production, including conventional studios and open areas for mass-scene shooting. The shooting locations are sensitively integrated into the existing landscape and old-established villages.

The concentric arrangement of the urban structure is a direct result of the development strategy: Like the pieces of a cake, every construction stage should comprise a part of the commercial areas in the centre, a part of the encircling movie towns and a part of other investments.

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Scope of services
Conceptual urban, architecture & landscape design
Design team
Wolf Loebel, Li Ran, Johannes Kister, Zhang Jian, Ignacio Alonso, Clemens Doehler, Yu Jing, Bai Fan, Nie Yun, Jeannine Schoenberg, Alberto Sanchez, Lara Rubio