Chongqing LongFor • Hall of Waterfront City / Shanghai Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering

Architects: Shanghai Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering
Location: Yubei Qu, Chongqing Shi, China
Design Team: Nie Xin, Xiaojuan Xu, Yang Chen, Boyang Li, Yuandi Nong, Dapeng Li, Yi Ding
Area: 950.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Shengliang Su, Yang Yuan

Services: Integral Design of Architecture + Landscape + Interior Space
Client: Chongqing LongFor
Interior Design: SYY Chongqing
Landscape Design: HWA Shanghai
Consultant For Curtain Wall: An’yan Design
Lighting Design: Beijing Qidishiguang
Structure Design: CMCU Engineering Co.,LTD.

Text description provided by the architects. Ark of Light city exhibition hall, which covers an area of 950㎡ (floor area, with the site area of 20000㎡), is located at the commercial core of Lijia new area, the riverbank of Jialing River and the new center of Chongqing, next to the only waterfront low-density business district of Chongqing and top residential area in the future.

Bird Eye View of the Park. Image © Shengliang Su

Bird Eye View. Image Courtesy of Shanghai Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering

Ark of Light is firstly used as the sales center of LongFor Waterfront City, and later it will become a city hall opened to public, in which commercial practice and art exhibitions will be carried out, aiming to represent the coming high-level city life in Chongqing.

Passage and Courtyard. Image © Shengliang Su

Ark and Stone are epitomes, both physically and spiritly, of the landscape city Chongqing. Therefore, taking the inspiration of “Ark of Lignt, Stone of Memory”, the architects converts natural and culture features of the city with integrated design including architecture, space and landscape, and at the same time deliver the new image of Chongqing city with futuristic avant-garde form.

Entrance of the Main Building. Image © Shengliang Su

To get a complete indoor space without pillars and a free architecture figure, the construction engineer used truss structure reaching the length of 34 meters, thus the roof could be stretched out as far as 15 meters.

Main Exhibition Hall. Image © Shengliang Su

The concept of future is presented by the sense of antigravity, combing the tactility of fine gauze. To achieve that, architects used the method of parametric design when they dealt with those perforated aluminium pan-el, where holes in diverse scales actualized the initial concept of fine gauze. Under the gallery frame, they elaborately picked stainless steel plate with mirror coating as the gallery’s surface, and the result turns out to be like a galaxy with mini holes on plates and light boxes in the dropped ceiling.