Collaborator: KAS

Result: First prize in competition (One out of six)

Location: Hezhou, Guangxi province, China
Typology: Mixed-Use Tourism Planning, Masterplan, Commercial Development
Land area: 147,077 sqm; GFA: 236,780 sqm
Year: 2016

Design Concept
At the beginning of the project, I questioned myself: “How to achieve a massive tourism project in a fourth-tier city of China?”

I specified the following issues and carried out the solutions through design:
1)Q: How to combine site-specific advantages and surrounding resources to make a differentiated development for a tourist destination?
A: To integrate the project within an existing Grade 3 tourism area (including its resources) while providing comprehensive tourism facilities. Eventually, it was aimed to promote a higher ranked tourism complex in Grade 4.

2)Q: How to engage the local folk cultural elements in the project?
A: Tourist commodities, touring routes, local food and beverage culture, local architectural style.

3)Q: How to embody a “Riverside Scene”?
A: By introducing a diversity of waterscapes, to create a glorious sceneries of traditional waterfronts in combination with commercial streets, housing and hospitality.

4)Q: How to activate the commercial space above ground floor to meet the high density requirements (FAR) of the client?
A: By introducing a “folk cultural corridor above the roof tiles”, which would distribute the pedestrian flow above ground level.