Heatherwick Studio, known for its context-sensitive design, has transformed the heart of Xi’an, one of China’s most culturally rich ancient cities, with an innovative design solution. The Xi’an Centre Culture Business District (CCBD), a cultural and commercial hub, was developed to foster the city’s economic growth and honor its diverse culture, bringing communities together.
Xi’an Centre Culture Business District (CCBD): A New Urban Hub
The Xi’an Centre Culture Business District, a mixed-use project, blends commercial offices, cultural spaces, luxury residences, and retail areas. The vision for the CCBD was to create a go-to place for business, leisure, connection, and tourism in the region. It fosters the notion of enhancing the economic footprint for Xi’an’s ambitions to create a global presence for culture and commerce.
A Fusion of Heritage, Craft, and Contemporary Design
The design reflects the ancient stories of Xi’an’s culture, globally recognized for its terracotta Army and preservation of ceramic craftsmanship. Embracing this tradition, the team of Heatherwick Studio decided to craft the facade with a cladding of over 100,000 handcrafted ceramic tiles. The efforts of the team go further; they collaborated with local artisans, experimenting with over 100,000 handcrafted ceramic tiles. These intricate details are the soul of the project, including hand-carved timber railings and glazed ceramic lift buttons.
This thoughtful approach allows users to not just look but to feel and connect with the ancient wisdom embedded in the organic built form. The design of the CCBD focused on human scale and proportion, entirely designed to grow over time. The skyline represents the contemporary interpretation of traditional temple roofs of Xi’an. To provide diverse multilevel experience, the landscape, layered terrace, and dynamic meeting junctions were consciously filled with sensory details and textures.
Xi’an Tree: A Vertical Park of 56 Terraces
The eye-catching element of the design stands as the Xi’an Tree. A 57-meter-tall vertical park, composed of 56 elevated terraces, in the form of a petal, with a center space for communities to gather and engage in a dialogue. These terraces offer panoramic views of Xi’an’s skyline and its surroundings, connect with nature, and invite people to engage with the environment. Walking through the structure, one can experience cascading gardens on the terraces that represent the different biomes of the historic Silk Road, from the alpine tundra to the dry steppes, echoing the nod to Xi’an’s historical role as a key stop on the famed trade route.
Balancing cutting-edge technology, the design philosophy emphasizes fluidity, movement, and interaction, where the dynamic flow of people, ideas, and commerce blends to enhance Xi’an’s role in the world.
CCBD as a Symbol of Past-Future Integration
The CCBD, as a cultural hub, is open for all, and its district’s public spaces, including its streets, plazas, and green areas, provide opportunities for locals and tourists to experience the historic art and embrace modern integration. The Xi’an Centre Culture Business District celebrates urban lifestyle, blending past and future, and offering an architectural language that serves both functional and cultural purposes. CCBD becomes the transformative project that integrates community engagement and sustainability and enhances cultural significance for both Xi’an and China as a whole.
Xi’an Centre Culture Business District Project Details
Location: Xi’an, China
Size: 155,000m²
Architect: Heatherwick Studio
Director: Thomas Heatherwick
Project Leaders: Luis Sacristán Murga, Simon Winters, Angel Tenorio
Project Managers: Consuelo Manna, Jimmy Hung
Photo credit: Qingyan Zhu, Raquel Diniz, Luis Sacristán Murga /© Heatherwick Studio
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