PROJECTS

STUDIO

DESCRIPTION DETAILS

Heatherwick Studio and CR Land are creating a new shopping district at the heart of the ancient city of Xi’an in Shaanxi, China. The design honours the city’s legacy of making and its historic connection to ceramics, creating space for visitors to explore and relax as well as shop.

The development spans 115,000 square metres featuring offices, apartments, a hotel and a variety of green spaces including a rooftop garden, sunken terrace and gardens for visitors to come together and use as social spaces.

The design breaks up the scale of a monolithic commercial volume into smaller interlocking buildings inspired by the familiar shape of traditional nesting tables. These ‘tables’ create a dynamic frame featuring a series of open terraces with gathering spaces. Greenery is woven through the design, with a variety of local plant species set both within the ground floor architecture and on each of the roof structures.

The entire district has been designed to offer visual complexity from three distances. At a city-scale, the district appears as a new verdant area of the city with a distinctive skyline inspired by the roofs of the Chinese temples of Xi’an. At a street distance, the varying levels created by the interlocking frames and landscape terraces provide different vantage points of the central plaza as well as the city around it. At door-level, the design offers a sensory experience in its use of materials and nature.

The materials used throughout the new district honour Xi’an’s legacy of making, especially its historic connection to ceramics. The buildings are clad using different patterns of ceramic cladding, inspired by the Terracotta Army, one of the most iconic examples of clay sculpture anywhere in the world. The design team worked closely with local makers to produce original ceramic patterns which add interest and intrigue to the exterior of buildings.

As with all Heatherwick Studio projects, the team designed the buildings through a process of making – constructing small scale models in-house and then erecting large scale visual mock-ups of the key elements of the building directly on site, enabling the team to see the real scale of the buildings as it will be experienced by the visitors and passers-by.

The project is currently in construction with the opening planned for 2024.

Heatherwick Studio and CR Land are creating a new shopping district at the heart of the ancient city of Xi’an in Shaanxi, China. The design honours the city’s legacy of making and its historic connection to ceramics, creating space for visitors to explore and relax as well as shop.

The development spans 115,000 square metres featuring offices, apartments, a hotel and a variety of green spaces including a rooftop garden, sunken terrace and gardens for visitors to come together and use as social spaces.

The design breaks up the scale of a monolithic commercial volume into smaller interlocking buildings inspired by the familiar shape of traditional nesting tables. These ‘tables’ create a dynamic frame featuring a series of open terraces with gathering spaces. Greenery is woven through the design, with a variety of local plant species set both within the ground floor architecture and on each of the roof structures.

The entire district has been designed to offer visual complexity from three distances. At a city-scale, the district appears as a new verdant area of the city with a distinctive skyline inspired by the roofs of the Chinese temples of Xi’an. At a street distance, the varying levels created by the interlocking frames and landscape terraces provide different vantage points of the central plaza as well as the city around it. At door-level, the design offers a sensory experience in its use of materials and nature.

The materials used throughout the new district honour Xi’an’s legacy of making, especially its historic connection to ceramics. The buildings are clad using different patterns of ceramic cladding, inspired by the Terracotta Army, one of the most iconic examples of clay sculpture anywhere in the world. The design team worked closely with local makers to produce original ceramic patterns which add interest and intrigue to the exterior of buildings.

As with all Heatherwick Studio projects, the team designed the buildings through a process of making – constructing small scale models in-house and then erecting large scale visual mock-ups of the key elements of the building directly on site, enabling the team to see the real scale of the buildings as it will be experienced by the visitors and passers-by.

The project is currently in construction with the opening planned for 2024.

CLIENT

CRL (China Resources Land)

APPOINTMENT

2020 (following competition win) 

STATUS

Under Construction
(expected October 2024)

SIZE

155,000 sqm (Podium)
+ 77,000 sqm (Landscape) 

DESIGN DIRECTOR

Thomas Heatherwick

GROUP LEADER & PARTNER

Mat Cash 

PROJECT LEADERS

Simon Winters & Luis Sacristán Murga

PROJECT MANAGERS

Consuelo Manna & Jimmy Hung 

TECHNICAL DESIGN LEADERS

Nick Ling & Maura Ambrosiano 

CHINA LEAD

Leo Cheung 

PROJECT TEAM

Architecture:
Adam Brown, Alfredo Chavez Romero, Almudena Rodriguez Hortiguela,
Anjie Gu, Aziz Hoque, Blue Tuohy,
Cong Wang, Consuelo Manna, Eric Lim, Erich Breuer, Fanos Katsaris, Francis Ng, Freddie Lomas, Hannah Parker,
Hannah Steenson, Helen Siu, James Ness, Jethro Rebollar, Ji Qi, Jimmy Hung,
Ko-Cheng Liu, Kong Hoang,
Linus Cheng, Luis Sacristan Murga, Luke Plumbley, Manuel Ramos,
Marwah Osama, Mat Cash,
Matthew Magee, Meera Yadave,
Michael Kloihofer, Nick Ling,
Sherry Xiao, Silvia Rueda Cuellar,
Simon Winters, Simone Berardelli,
Sonila Kadillari, Steven Howson,
Victoria Dong and Willow Tang. 

Interiors:
Agnes Kerecsanin, Aleksandar Bursac, Alice Dousova, Andre Kong,
Ayumi Konishi, Aziz Hoque,
Beau Lawrence, Blue Tuohy,
Bori Kovacs, Carrick Blore,
Charlotte McCarthy (Lead), Chen He, Chen Yue, Consuelo Manna,
Edward Milton, Emric John-Sawyer,
Ezgi Terzioglu, Fanos Katsaris,
Flavio Sousa Monteiro,
Francesca Morroni (Lead),
Francesca Valentino, Freddie Lomas, Hannah Francis, Harriet Gargrave,
James Harris, Ji Qi, Joe Brennan,
Karim Hallak, Kelvin Lam,
Krina Christopoulou, Liang-Yu Sung, Lijing Zhou, Marcus Hawk,
Mark McKee (Lead), Mary Suen, Martynas Kasiulevicius, Matthew Heitel, Mat Cash, Maura Ambrosiano,
May Tang, Moira Geddes,
Natasha Trumic, Nick Ling, Noa Guy, Olga Rienda Sevilla, Oliver Zhu,
Paul Brooke, Pennie Dawes,
Ragavendran Gowrisankar,
Silvia Rueda Cuellar, Simone Berardelli, Sofia Hagen, Thomas Thornton and Xirong Zheng. 

Landscape:
Aziz Hoque, Consuelo Manna,
Erich Breuer, Fanos Katsaris,
Harriet Gargrave, Jimmy Hung,
Kate Le Masurier, Kelvin Lam,
Luis Sacristán Murga, Mat Cash,
Maura Ambrosiano, Paul Chu,
Philipp Nedomlel, Sherry Xiao, Winki Ho and Yijia Li. 

Xi’an Tree:
Angel Tenorio (Lead),
Andrew Friedenberg, Anjie Gu,
Cameron Overy, Consuelo Manna,
Diana Mykhaylychenko, Dirce Medina Patatuchi, Fabian Hubner, Ji Qi,
Jimmy Hung, Joanna Sabak, Joe Brennan, Kyriakos Chatziparaskevas,
Martynas Kasiulevicius, Mat Cash,
Nick Ling, Nicolas Ombres, Ondrej Pokoj, Peter Romvari, Sherry Xiao and
Theophile Peju. 

CONSULTANTS

10 Design, Arup, Green, GP Architects, KTF, JZFZ, Lacime, RBS, Speirs+Major, Surbana Jurong, WSP, WTD