Future City Xicen

Xicen Country City masterplan presents a holistic solution for the upcoming development of a 7.1 km2 site on the southern bank of the Dianshan Lake, which is located in the Yangtze Delta area in close proximity to Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. The site has rich water network that takes up about one thirds of the total site area. This masterplan is a prototype for more livable and sustainable developments of the future that brings all the amenities and convenience typically found in existing metropoles in a location embraced by nature.

The proposed masterplan adopts a 50/50 City approach, allocating most of the urban development to the northern half of the site while preserving nature and indigenous culture in the southern half. In the urban half, surface vehicular roads are reduced to a minimum and the land is divided into a series of thematic islands in order to tap into the rich green and blue resources of the site, while celebrating the unique waterfront lifestyle of the Xicen region.

The Urban Core Islands have the highest density and programmatic mix with a district transport hub, civic/commercial plaza and arts/cultural center seamlessly connected to the metro and high-speed railway stations. The R&D Islands integrate garden offices, R&D facilities, and business incubators with residences to suit the future need of high-tech industries. The Residential Islands face the water and benefit from a natural biophilic environment. A series of Rewilding Islands are embedded into the urban spaces, allowing regenerative nature to render bioremediation and ecological services to the built environment.

The nature half is grouped into four zones: Eco-Tourism Zone, High-Tech High Intensity Farming Zone, Campus Village Zone and SME Creative Clusters Zone. By enhancing agricultural and energy production as well as inserting anchor industries and schools, Xicen Country City will become a selfsufficient and resilient urban typology wellequipped for all the future challenges and opportunities.

Future City Maqiao

Maqiao Future City is located in the southwest of Shanghai, 35 km away from the city center. It is the 20-hectare core development area of the future Shanghai AI Innovation Zone. The vision of this masterplan is to create an integrated new town as the driving engine for the larger region and a human-centric destination place that celebrates future live, learn, work and play. It will also be a demonstration project that aims to achieve carbon neutrality in phases.

The masterplan adopts the 50/50 City strategy, preserving half of the land for restorative and regenerative green and blue spaces and the other half for high-density high-amenity urban development, allowing a balanced synergy to grow between nature and the built environment. Programmatically it follows the same concept, proposing half of the development as residential spaces and the other half as a mix of R&D offices, commercial and community spaces.

Maqiao Future City consists of eight interconnected clusters, the Urban Core being the most dense and mixed-use. It integrates metro station, district transport hub, retail shops, urban plaza, and landmark buildings to create a welcoming gateway to the city and a vibrant civic center that forges a strong community spirit and sense of place.

Radiating out from the Urban Core are three Garden Office clusters with SOHO apartment blocks and various embedded business incubators that act as a physical and functional bridge between the urban spaces and the spaces left to nature. The waterfront residential clusters offer community spaces such as sports halls, schools, or healthcare centres.

A 3-dimensional planning strategy is introduced to bring things together. Vehicular roads, district infrastructures and services are buried underground, leaving the ground level fully pedestrianized and maximized for nature. Multiple landscaped ground levels are created above to facilitate stronger connection between clusters and further enhance the ecological system.

NOMU

NOMU – North of the Museum and University – is an adaptive re-use of an existing 1970s apartment block into a mixed-use development with shops, offices and residential apartments. By exposing the original concrete frame, the interplay of solid and selectively demolished voids serves to carve new, interesting volumes out of the existing structure.

The façade is wrapped in a gauze-like layer of silver screens which alternately conceal and reveal the underlying structure. Elements such as stairs and service enclosures are picked out in striking rust-red metal as functional “sculptures” that punctuate the old grid.

The project is notable for proposing that the commercial quantum be sleeved along Handy Road to enliven the street level. NOMU is an example of how obsolete inner-city structures can be utilised to make the city an exciting place to live and work.

Goodwood Residence

The 210-unit Goodwood Residence adjoins Goodwood Hill, a 20-hectare tree conservation area dotted with colonial “Black and White” bungalows. Organised as two 12-storey L-shaped blocks, the 2.5-hectare development frames the view to the forested hill through an operable facade.

All blocks are one apartment thick, configured as “garden walls” that define and enclose a series of courtyards culminating in a 100m wide lawn and pool court, the heart of the development.

The ground floor units have private gardens and pools with sliding panels that allow either a walled courtyard or framed views over the borrowed landscape. Overlooking the central courtyard on the 2nd and 3rd storeys, are 15 units designed with “treehouse cabanas” perched amidst the treetop canopies. Rising above this tree line are the mid-levels (4th-11th storeys), which have overlapping double volume balconies.

The units are screened with an operable screen made from aluminium tubes which resemble a woven textile. The screen has operable sections that pivot up for open views or can be left down for privacy. The screen allows free flow of air into the naturally ventilated apartments.

The project has been awarded the prestigious GreenMark Platinum Award by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore.

MeyerHouse

Along Meyer Road, in Singapore’s eastern residential enclaves, sits a condominium development housing 56 dwelling units adjacent to a 1 hectare forested park. The 5-storey with attic development is arrayed in a contiguous ‘C’ configuration with residences looking out onto a 50m by 75m internal forested garden that spills out onto the adjacent park.

Living spaces extend onto large outdoor rooms nestled amongst tall forest trees set amidst a formal English garden. Terracing gardens and water bodies cascade down onto a lower ground arrival level, opening up the subterranean arrival lobbies and facilities to natural daylight, ventilation and greenery.

From street level, the building is scaled to the proportions of a traditional French Chateau with a stately façade of customized louvers and panelling that envelops the entire form. The louvered façade is inclined to secure privacy for units from street level. The façade finishes extend onto the roof, creating an envelope that is sculptural and abstract.

Internally, the forested garden is cocooned by timber blinds that screen the residences imbuing the tranquil garden spaces with warmth and character. Within the garden, a long pool set centrally along the main axial views of the forested park reflect the tall trees and warm facades of the development. The pool is overlooked by guest and entertainment facilities that house a generous dining room, a cosy lounge and outdoor activity decks.

2023

  • Green Good Design Sustainability Awards - Winner

    Awarded by Chicago Atheneum in the Green Architecture category.

万科峯境

项目是一座位于中国广州市白云地区的商住综合体。设计为中国的城市化进程提出了具有领先意义的环保居住模式,在高密度的城市环境里创造出了可以呼吸的绿色建筑

项目基地比邻绿意昂然的白云山,坐拥着在中国大都市里难得的优良自然环境。设计充分考虑到了这一点并把自然景色作为了建筑造型和布局的主要的出发点。

为了充分的利用景观的优势,小区的楼房被布局成了一个”U”字型,确保了尽可能多的居住单元能享受到不远处的山景。在小区里不同区域和不同楼层的立体绿化和背景中的白云山一起构成了多层次的立体景致,远近呼应的绿意为居民带来了更多的视觉享受。

在每栋居民楼上每隔四层就设有一座空中花园,这些花园与电梯厅相连,将自然带到居民眼前的同时也提供了方便邻里之间社交的平台。除此之外,空中花园设置的数量和间隔还赋予了居民楼一种传统连排别墅那样三至四层的一种更宜居尺度。空中花园的两侧纵向建筑表皮是从二层一直通到屋顶的垂直绿墙,它们与花园结合起来形成了每栋楼的垂直绿核。小区内较低矮的居民楼和所有商用建筑顶部也都被绿化覆盖,成为了除去地面层以外又一个公共活动平台。

绿化的概念也被引入了每户单元内,设计让居民可以在自家的阳台上轻易的接触到建筑立面上的花池。主户被鼓励在这些花池里面栽种自己想要的花草,这样的策略让每家每户都能自己拥有独特外观的同时也加强了住户对居民楼共同责任感和归属感。立面上网格状的金属结构将凸窗和阳台整合成了一种和谐的建筑语言,它们也为垂直绿化提供了附着攀爬的骨架,使植物能够逐渐蔓延开来以至最后为建筑完全批上一层绿衣。

空中花园,垂直绿墙,屋顶花园和地面景观一起构成了一座”立体森林”, 将社区变成了一个能够24小时产生新鲜空气的”绿肺”。所有的绿化也能其到良好的隔音效果,让居民免受来自于周边城市环境里的噪音打扰。

小区的布局也考虑到了广州地区每年的季风风向变化,通过居民楼上的不同间隙和开口以及高层楼房和地层楼房叠搭后在底部形成的两个大开口使每家每户以及整个社区在不同的季节都能拥有良好的自然通风。

小区地面层的公共空间和私密空间被景观清楚的划分开来。一个全标准长度游泳池从小区大堂延伸出去并穿过低层居民楼的下方,形成了整个小区的视觉主轴之一。泳池旁的景观水体会根据季节而变化,在炎热的夏天被注满而在凉爽的秋冬季节被放干成为活动平台。在小区内的下沉式商业广场的四周,一圈竹林将附近道路上的汽车噪音隔绝开来。巨型”盆景”则成为了供公众休憩的凉亭。

项目的商业部分被安排在了地面层上朝向主路的位置。商业功能的体量被细化成在广州地区常见的小尺度模式。此处也包括了一个下沉是广场,在满足商业面积需求的同时也提供了一个不受外部行车噪音打扰的公共空间。

当人们驾车行驶过白云高速路时,峯境面向道路的两块50米通高绿墙会显得格外引人注目。小区内层次丰富的绿化和另一侧的白云山遥相呼应,赏心悦目。项目大胆的景观手法和科学的规划布局是对传统商品房如出一辙的开发模式的一次挑战,设计也希望通过这样一个项目能在当地和更广泛的中国区域内带动起生态环保建筑的新潮。

海军部村庄养老综合体

Kampung Admiralty is Singapore’s first building to bring together a mix of public facilities and services under one roof. The traditional approach is for each government agency to have their own plot of land, resulting in standalone buildings. This one-stop integrated complex maximises land use and the benefits of co-location, and is a prototype for meeting the needs of Singapore’s ageing population.

The compact site, adjacent to a train station in medium-rise public housing area, prompted a layered ‘club sandwich’ approach. The result is a “Vertical Kampung (village)”, with a Community Plaza sheltered by a Medical Centre supporting a rooftop Community Park overlooked by apartments for seniors. These three distinct layers juxtapose the various building uses to foster diversity of cross-programming and frees up the ground level for activity generators. The proximity to healthcare, social, commercial and other amenities support inter-generational bonding and promote active ageing in place. The development has proven extremely popular, and was used as the backdrop for the Prime Minister’s 2018 National Day address, as a visual embodiment of Singapore’s aspirations for a more caring community environment.

2020

  • Asia Pacific Leadership in Green Building Awards - Shortlisted

    Leadership in Sustainable Design and Performance (Institutional) category, awarded by World Green Building Council

  • International Urban Project Award - Shortlisted

    Organised by Bauwelt Berlin and WA World Architecture Magazine, Beijing

2019

  • ArcAsia Awards for Architecture - Mention

    Category B-4 (Specialized Buildings) category, awarded by Architects Regional Council Asia (ARCASIA)

  • SGBC-BCA Sustainability Leadership Awards 2019 - Design Award

    Leadership in Sustainable Design and Performance (Institutional), awarded by Singapore Green Building Council and Building and Construction Authority, Singapore

  • 19th SIA Architectural Design Awards 2019 - Design Award

    Commercial (Mixed Development) category, awarded by SIA

  • CTBUH Urban Habitat Award (Single-Site Scale) - - Winner

    Awarded by Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Chicago, Illinois

  • CTBUH Best Tall Mixed-Use Building - Winner

    Awarded by Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Chicago, Illinois

  • 2019 Green Good Design Award - Winner

    Awarded by The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design

2018

  • World Architecture Festival - World Building of the Year

    Awarded by World Architecture Festival

  • World Architecture Festival - Shortlisted

    Mixed Use – Completed category, awarded by World Architecture Festival

  • HDB Design Award - Winner

    Completed Project – Mixed Development category, awarded by Housing & Development Board

  • International Chapter Architecture Awards - Commendation

    Commercial Architecture, awarded by The Australian Institute of Architects

2017

  • NParks Skyrise Greenery Award - Winner

    Outstanding and Excellence Award, awarded by National Parks Board, Singapore

2016

  • World Architecture Festival - Winner

    Commercial Mixed-Use (Future Projects) category, awarded by World Architecture Festival

2015

  • Landscape Excellence Assessment Framework (LEAF) - Outstanding Project

    Awarded by National Parks Board, Singapore

  • HDB Innovative Design Award - Winner

    Winner, under “To-Be-Built” Mixed Development category, awarded by Housing & Development Board, Singapore

2006

  • ArcAsia Awards for Architecture - Mention

    Category A-2: Multiple-Family Residential, awarded by ArcAsia