Description

This project description is an excerpt from the longer article “Superblock Configurations”. For a comparative analysis and further data on this and all other categories including accompanying graphs, please see the article “A Turning Point”.

Two projects of note representing distinct approaches dealing with superblocks are Jian Wai SOHO, the first phase of which was completed in 2004, and the Linked Hybrid, completed later in 2009.[1] Located in the Chaoyang and Dongcheng districts of Beijing, they were developed by a younger generation of savvy entrepreneurs with an emphatic commitment to design, and in particular, to the significance of well-designed properties in offering compelling urban living environments for the New China.

This premium placed on design at Jian Wai SOHO is evinced by the strategy adopted by Jian Wai SOHO, which thrives on the development of pure prime office space in collaboration with internationally-renowned architects. Established only in 1995 by the husband-and-wife team of Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, the company, which stands for Small Office Home Office – has carved out a niche for itself, catering to urban professionals and the affluent through the delivery of high-quality, innovative products that fulfill the needs of this demographic type. The Jian Wai SOHO project is one of more than a dozen that SOHO China has developed in Beijing alone, and is situated at the junction of the Third Ring Road and the Tonghui River in the Beijing Central Business District. Nested in what was originally a 34-hectare superblock of old factories, the project itself was built out in seven phases, of which Phases I, II, III, and VI were completed in 2004, and Phases IV, V, and VII were finished later in 2007. The contiguous superblock was subdivided into nine smaller parcels in its redevelopment, in keeping with some of the principles put forward by Johnson Fain in their 2001 urban design and master plan for what was then slated to be Beijing’s new CBD east of Tiananmen Square. In doing so, arterial roads and secondary streets were reintroduced into the superblock, together with the CBD park occupying one of the parcels along the river front. Within this expansive site, the entire Jian Wai SOHO development took up just 16.9 hectares spread across four and a half parcels.[2] As compared to the original block dimension of some 850 meters by 470 meters, the segmented parcels were much more amenable, and in the case of the two parcels comprising the first phase of Jian Wai SOHO completed in 2004, the dimension was on the order of 290 meters by 220 meters.

After an international design competition, Riken Yamamoto was engaged by SOHO China to design the master plan and the 20 apartment towers, together with Field Shop, while the four mid-rise office structures interspersed among the grid of nine towers, also known as “villas”, were designed by C + A at Yamamoto’s invitation. Jian Wai SOHO was Yamamoto’s first venture in China, and he envisioned the mixed-use project combining collective housing and commercial facilities to be an open place with alleys running in between buildings and corridors bridging housing overhead, thereby offering moments of discovery and surprise within a multi-layered, maze-like condition. Drawing allegedly on the Moroccan city of Ceuta, Yamamoto imbues the site with similar spatial features, masterfully creating a constant change of scenery, where what seemed like an underground passage suddenly lays bare to the weather elements, or where an intimate alleyway opens up to a plaza and nexus of activity at the turn of a corner. Rather than working with an ultimate image in mind, he conceived of the elements of this urban microcosm as cells that are multiplied and interconnected both horizontally and vertically, giving rise to the eventual structure of activities that have the inherent flexibility to adapt to the varying temporalities and subsequent evolution of the place.[3]

While the project bears a resemblance to the Shinonome Canal Court project in Tokyo by Yamamoto, mentioned earlier and that served as a precursor to this development, here, the exploration of what might be termed a ‘field operation’ was pushed much further. In this first phase, the checkerboard layout of the nine slender towers and the four “villas” was offset by 25 degrees, maximizing the solar insulation on the site as well as providing views to the Tonghui River. Against this vertical ‘forest’ of small offices/home offices and commercial space with circulation access connecting the plinth of underground parking and common living spaces right through to the rooftop gardens, Yamamoto introduced a horizontal ground plane above the plinth and its lower-level arcade structures. This ground plane is articulated by the sinuous alleys criss-crossing the site along with landscape elements arranged in bands and gardens parallel to the 25-degree building displacement. It is also at this level where the pedestrianized public space is activated through the over 200 shops, restaurants, and cafés dispersed across the project, each with its own individual entrance. Finally, the three-dimensional character of the ‘field operation’ is enhanced by the array of sunken courtyards placed strategically within the interior, traversed by bridges on the ground plane above. These not only bring daylight to the lower levels in the plinth, but also serve as open spaces, some of which are used as recreational grounds. Collectively, these seemingly simple yet sophisticated maneuvers playing on perceptual depth and unfolding visual sequences endow a high degree of liveliness to the project, while heightening the overall spatial appreciation.

Intended to be priced for middle-income earners, the complex is popular as a trendy, desirable property and its prime location caused a rapid appreciation. The concrete and partially steel-framed square towers rising 100 meters in height are 27.3 meters wide, and are categorized into the L or ‘pinwheel’ type, the MS or ‘grid’ type, and the MSC type.[4] These three tower types contain a variety of unit layouts, with the L-type offering two different three-bedroom configurations, the MS-type housing one type of one-bedroom units and another three different types of two-bedroom units, and finally, the MSC-type containing a single configuration for the one-bedroom units and the maisonettes, along with two different two-bedroom unit types. The unit sizes range from 61.4 square meters for the smallest one-bedroom type up to 223.2 square meters for the largest three-bedroom unit type. Depth-wise, the units are as slim as 5.8 meters, reaching up to a maximum of only 11.7 meters, of which units with the latter depth are arranged in a pinwheel fashion along the corners of the L-type tower, ensuring that each unit has two adjacent façades allowing adequate light into the interiors. Each unit in essence becomes a work-live environment, and coupled with the proximity to other commercial and office space, less than a third of these SOHO units are in fact inhabited as residential spaces.

In contrast to this diversity of dwelling units, the two office wings in the first phase of the project are more straightforward in their floor plans, with each floor containing six office units based on three configurations, ranging from 279 to 329 square meters. Overall, the project has a total built area of around 700,000 square meters. Architecturally, Yamamoto endeavored to “avoid exclusionary and monumental” forms, thereby adopting an abstract expression of white columns and beams, juxtaposed against a fenestration of transparent and opaque glass panels, overlooking the ground level commercial facilities and sunken plazas where the urban action occurs. Jian Wai SOHO’s success is attested by the increasing number of commercial and cultural activities that have chosen to locate there, and it has likewise become a favorite venue for live performances and cultural events that draw in the crowds during the vibrant summer months. More importantly, apart from suggesting an alternative to the making of attractive mixed-use superblock neighborhoods for China, the development has been an urban-architectural innovation that has promoted a new way of living for contemporary China.

---

Originally published in: Peter G. Rowe, Har Ye Kan, Urban Intensities: Contemporary Housing Types and Territories, Birkhäuser, 2014.