Shanghai MixC Park

The masterplan for the Qibao Eco-Business District creates a series of vibrant, pedestrian corridors that links the site with the adjacent Minghang Cultural Park and the neighboring urban fabric. New building massings were included to enhance and embellish the site connections.

A series of individual building elements are arrayed across the North and South edges of the linear site. Collectively, these elements frame a central interior courtyard while the gaps between the individual buildings allow for secondary circulation paths across the site. Subtle shifts in the massing enhance the building and circulation arrangement by creating human-scaled relationships between forms and places for intimate interaction, such as the sunken courtyards and that elevated terraces.

The site organization was informed by grouping the two distinct types of potential tenants – three leasable buildings to the west and two buildings operated and maintained by the building client to the east – connected by a public shared lobby. Each building type includes a series of potential layouts that accommodate for both office and retail use and allowing for maximum future flexibility.

The building façades design enhances the perception of movement throughout the site. The East and West facing façades exhibit a continuous rhythm of vertical fins, each with a custom profile and depth in response to solar orientation. The lively façade design offers an ephemeral shifting appearance as one circulates in and around the buildings, with the façades shifting opacity levels culminating in full transparency when viewed frontally.

In contrast, the North and South facing façades design is comprised of taut and transparent planes with minimal articulation. Horizontal openings are periodically introduced into the massing to reduce the scale of volumes. Each of these openings creates a private exterior terrace for the office tenants and provides an accessory area for casual interaction.

The shared lobby contains a three-story atrium, dramatic circulation bridge and a delicate timber screen that protects the interior from direct sunlight. Serving as a key design driver, the expansive lobby serves as a collaboration and interaction space that offers a memorable and symbolic center for the project. The shared atrium unites the interior with the exterior courtyard by means of a sunken plaza that includes ample seating, ornamental gardens and a water feature. At night, the interior lighting from the space serves a beacon for the site, drawing visitors in from surrounding spaces.

The interior design strategy is organized to provide a variety of spaces for flexible collaboration and continual activity over the course of a full day. To achieve this goal, a diverse mixed-use program is broken into a series of distinctly crafted zones, each customized for different activities, and distributed throughout the complex to encourage social interaction. The central courtyard and supporting sunken plazas form the ‘green heart’ of the development and serve as a physical and visual connector between the complex’s adjacent buildings. The interior material palette, furniture and artwork selections were inspired by the surrounding landscape, light patterns and changing seasons.