Category:

New Build & Development Winner

Design Practice:

Elena Galli Giallini Limited & Spawton Architecture

Project Title:

Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu

Project Location:

Chengdu, China

Design Practice Location:

Admiralty, Hong Kong

Daci Temple Project sits in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province located in southwest China. The city is renowned for its social and leisurely lifestyle, as well as its tea-houses. This mixed-use development is placed in a prime location in the city’s major shopping district, with a ground floor area of more than 250,000 square metres. It features a luxury boutique hotel and Grade A office tower, as well as a low-rise, open-air, pedestrian-style shopping and recreational area.

Heritage-led architecture embraces traditional Sichuan style with modern interpretation. Sino-Ocean and Taikoo Li Chengdu retail complex, the main component of the development, spreads over three above-ground floors and a basement shopping-mall arcade. This comprises diverse public areas, vertical circulation lobbies, washrooms, a metro entrance and other zones for specific functions. The lower-ground arcade, which has a ground floor area (GFA) of 18,000 metres, is consistent in design with the upper retail complex.

The concept underlying the arcade design refers to subterranean Chinese landscape motifs. These include Chinese rock symbols, underground streams, lakes, and cave imagery with complex systems of ‘worlds within worlds’. Caves are containers for mystery and believed to be places of purified qi (life-force). The design aims to evoke this unique energy with its mysterious qualities.

Juxtapositions of old and new, heritage and nature, place and history, were the essential themes. The design generates a coherent, harmonious environment where each part enhances another’s energy, through synergistic contrast. The visual language generates dynamism and distinction, while spatial layout provides interconnectedness.

Materials, colours and lighting were critical to emphasising naturalness and defining the mall’s character. Quality was used to enhance elegance in every area. Attractive visual elements and multiple amenities play key roles, offering focal and interaction points for the provision of leisure and entertainment, for compelling customer experience.