Located in Pudong New District, Shanghai, the New Yangsi area situates at the intersection of two major urban development zones, Golden Central Ring Development Zone and Yanggao Road Business Corridor, adjacent to Chuanyang River in north and Middle Ring Elevated Expressway in south. With a design area of approximately 2 million sq. meters, this project is one of the largest-scale development sites in the city. The growing demand for improving transportation, civil infrastructure and supporting facilities in the surrounding areas brings the site the potential to become a new central business district in Shanghai with higher standard of living and business opportunities. The public facilities around the site are limited, and the fragmented public spaces causes less accessibility to them, which falls behind the demands of the residents. Reconnecting the fragmented urban fabrics, one main feature of the master plan is to turn the lost urban spaces where were originally cut off by high voltage electrical transmission lines and subway lines. The design is based on the “Infrastructural Urbanism”, exploring a unique sustainable urban design in China. In the future, it will become a new central business district in Shanghai. Infrastructural Urbanism The core area takes advantage of the existing and planned transportation services through metro lines to link and integrate the area to other regions of the city and create a mixed-use neighborhood which caters to commercial, residential, cultural and eco-friendly demands. This leads to inclusion of a series of cultural, civic buildings which are evenly scattered in the surrounding grid facing the central park. This accelerates the formation of a diverse yet continuous network of public spaces. The leisure and entertainment facilities, art districts and creative industries diversifies the form and functionality of the space; which unifies the spatial distribution and takes innovative vitality of the urban area into consideration. The cluster of offices along the Yanggao Business Corridor utilizes its linear spatial characteristic to link plots, connect surrounding urban spaces and form a block-style office area. Due to the surrounding green urban spaces and hierarchical arrangement of buildings, these offices enjoy the best view of the city. The high-rise commercial buildings portray the rhythmic skyline of the city along Gaoqing Road and Yanggao Road in south. Interwoven Greenery and Open Space The urban development project is focused on creating a nexus of landscape spaces to build a vibrant ecological city. The landscape includes large inventory of green elements and rich spatial forms. Green Ecological Park occupies the core of the urban landscape and connects other open landscape spaces through a green corridor, which provides a considerable area of natural green space. The Central Park, City Square, Greenery Trail, Thousand Volt Park, Riverside Park and Urban Runways are established based on the geographical conditions; and these landscape hotspots in the urban area are spatially interconnected to form an interwoven greenery in the city. Creating pedestrian friendly urban neighborhood The project dismisses large-scale street block design which conventionally supports automobile as a mode to move around the city due to large distances. The pedestrian infrastructure system has a multi-level characteristic including on-ground and underground facilities. The on-ground pedestrian system is accessible by two ways, ground-level pedestrian streets and second-level landscape corridor. These two on-ground typologies are combined naturally to create an enjoyable walking experience. The ground-level pedestrian system is directly connected to the underground transportation system, which is prepared for the intelligent 5G connection services in the future. The network of landscape spaces with Green Ecological Park as the central node penetrates into the surrounding urban spaces, which connects the existing network of fragmented public spaces to create more accessibility to the neighborhood. In addition to make the area aesthetically pleasing, the abundant green landscape also generates more sustainability. The interplay of landscape and city infrastructure provides the community a healthy, diverse and intelligent access to outdoor spaces, thereby promoting harmonious coexistence of humans and nature. The project aims to build small pedestrian-friendly blocks which is essentially more people-oriented. Majority of the blocks adopt a modular scale ranging between 100 to 200 meters in length, which alleviate the traffic congestion on arterial roads, and ensure pedestrian safety.
Atelier Ping Jiang / EID Arch is a leading international practice for architecture and urbanism. Led by Founding Principal Ping Jiang, AIA, who established the Shanghai based practice in 2015, the firm strives to provide environmentally sensitive and innovative design solutions for architecture and urban environment. Our design process engages a simultaneous exploration of conventional building tectonics, integrating architecture, landscape, interior, product and art across the creative process.
Atelier Ping Jiang’s work has been awarded numerous international awards in recent years, including multiple AIA Design Awards, The Plan Award, WAF Awards, LEAF Awards, etc. The firm’s work has been published in architectural journals internationally. In 2021, Ping Jiang was named to Architectural Digest’s AD100 as one of the most influential architects working in the region. Atelier Ping Jiang / EID Arch has been recognized as the emerging practice of the year by World Architecture News.
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