王府井海港城

Wangfujing Harbor City

Wangfujing Harbor City

Wangfujing Harbor City is a luxurious mixed-use development in the historic Wangfujing shopping district. The location is merely 800 meters to the east of the Forbidden City, with visual connections to the imperial palace, the Jing Shan Mountain park, and the catholic church Dong Tang. Residential buildings to its north and west need to receive two hours of daylight on any given day, and this requirement chisels away from the originally boxy building envelope.

The program of the WHC is composed of 20,000sqm of residential, 41,000sqm of commercial, and 39,000sqm of SOHO, totaling 100,000sqm of floor areas above ground. Another 105,000sqm of program, mainly of retail and parking, are placed underground.

A shopping arcade is built diagonally into the podium shopping mall, to connect the urban plaza in front of the church on its southeast and the Hutong area on its northwest. The superstructure of the building, which are luxury apartments and SOHO, break down into pixelated units. This not only helps the building to maneuver into the shadow envelope, but also addresses the massing contrast between the high-end shopping malls to its east and the Hutong alley housing to its northwest. Gold is the main theme color, expressing the ultra high-end nature of the development.

I acted as the team captain for the design efforts on both options.