HAIHE WATERFRONT

It is the building/symbol that marks the intervention in the city’s fabric. Made up of two connected bodies (one 170 m high, the other some 250 m high), the skyscraper plays the role of an enormous, urban-scale “portal”, through which the sequence of the new city squares is perspectively framed as far as the Haihe Odeon.
The Ground Floor is linked to the historical buildings looking onto the He Ping Road via a large atrium that simultaneously provides access to the He Ping Skyscraper Shopping Mall and the underground’s commercial mezzanine floor.
The historical buildings preserved as facade design, though refurbished where necessary, are, in terms of interior layout, part of the skyscraper’s commercial system.
At the fitness and restaurant level, the building is “deformed” by the presence of a series of floors designed in a curvilinear fashion.
These floors “contaminate” the strict geometry of the building’s other levels and introduce a “figurative theme” that is derived from traditional Chinese landscape painting: the “Cloud” as evanescent, fleeting element that contrasts with the permanent, static mass of the “Mountain” and which, in part, deforms its image and perception.
 

COMPETITION: 2003

Architects
Mario Bellini Architects

Design Team
Mario Bellini, Masahiro Matsuno, Giovanni Cappelletti

Project Team
Edy Gaffulli, Geovana maschio, Dario Varetto, Alessandro Zufferli, Giulio Castegini, Vincenzo Ignaccolo, Kanvie Wu, Paola Salvatores, Mia Shibuya, Luigi Vaciago, Maurizio Di Lauro (model).