Project Overview

While ensuring the economic efficiency of real estate development, how to seek new breakthroughs in residential design to dialogue with the city and highlight human care in the built environment has become an emerging design consideration. This project is a design exploration of ideal human settlements.

The projects site is located in Chengnan Community in the old urban area of Jiangyin City. Its adjacent to Jiangyins core business district, and is also a key area in the citys urban renewal plan. In response to the market demands and relevant policies, we put forward the vision of "ideal living" for the project. The project is positioned as an upscale residential development, mainly comprising stacked villas, complemented by multi-story residential buildings and courtyard residences.

Project Commissioner

Jiangyin Chengfa Lvxin Real Estate Co., Ltd.

Project Creator

GMA ARCHITECTURAL & URBAN DESIGN

Team

Chief architect: Zou Daoming
Design team: Wang Xiang, Feng Mingsuo, Zhu Xuan, Gao Ren, Mei Jun, Liu Shiyuan, Shi Fang, Han Jianbiao, He Ling, Zhu Yifeng, Wang Songqing, Wu Liqiang

Project Brief

The project is built on two plots, occupying a land area of 50,237 sqm and a total building area of 95,745 sqm, with a floor area ratio of 1.1. The two plots are master planned with stacked villas, multi-story residential buildings, and courtyard residences. In line with the concept of landscape resource sharing and living privacy, the project adopts a street-and-lane layout to establish a pedestrian system that shapes a private and coherent living environment. Meanwhile, the central landscaped public space is utilized to ensure unblocked sight lines. Through the fusion of interior and exterior, the dynamic and the static, the light and shadows, the project aims to infuse a tranquil and elegant atmosphere into the modern, simple and low-density residential community, and to find a desirable perspective for the dialogue between architecture and nature.

The design applies simple and pure lines to the building facade, and adopts an asymmetrical building frame. Horizontal and vertical lines are interlaced in appropriate proportions to create an elegant yet dynamic architectural style. The buildings are designed with a reasonable window-to-wall ratio and clear layers. The continuous large balconies and floor-to-ceiling low-e glass highlight the rhythm of the buildings in the interplay of light and shadows, appearing elegant and vibrant.

Project Innovation/Need

The project seeks bold innovations in the design of different types of residences based on the clients needs. For the design of the six-story stacked villa building, which is the key type of residence in this project, it breaks the conventional “2+2+2” mode, but innovatively adopts a “2+1+3” pattern, which means that a six-story stacked villa building is composed of three households, including a three-story upper villa, a two-story villa at the bottom, and a single-floor home in the middle. Each household is equipped with an independent entrance elevator, and is designed with an entrance courtyard in the north. Besides, the lower home has a south-facing garden, the middle home has full-width terraces that stretch 17 meters, and the upper residence has both north and south terraces on two levels. Combining an "ideal villa living experience" with the concept of "sky gardens"， the project intends to create a poetic lifestyle in the city.

In the multi-story residential buildings, two top-floor residences are merged to create a rare large single-floor home with a balcony that stretches over 27 meters, offering the residents ultimate 270-degree views. The architectural design pursues the serenity and calmness produced by space, light and order, and seeks pure design languages and the seamless combination of indoor and outdoor spaces, and manages to unfold infinite scenery in a limited space.

Design Challenge

A big challenge of this project lies in the balance between space, properties and indicators. As a low-density residential development that consists of varied types of residences, it needs to carefully organize the space layout to meet the requirement for a floor area ratio of 1.1, which also imposes certain restrictions on the layout of ancillary rooms, car ramps, entrance lobbies, etc. By continuously adjusting the layouts, proportions and positions of different types of residences, and adjusting the scales and internal functions of ancillary rooms such as the entrance lobby, the final master plan is worked out. Gardens are arranged in between buildings, and a central landscaped courtyard is formed behind the entrance lobby on both plots to enhance the homecoming experience.
Another challenge during the design process was to meet sun exposure requirements. As the distance between buildings and the width of the site have been utilized to the extreme, it was difficult to meet the requirement for 3 hours of sun exposure on the Great Cold day. Based on full understanding of the planning requirements, the project has adjusted the form of the top floor of the stacked villas and the size of the protruding decorative lines between different building levels, and thus eventually satisfying the sun exposure requirements.
In view of the fierce competition in the real estate market, this project seeks an optimal solution in spite of various constrains to pursue high-quality property development, and it embodies innovative thinking and practice of ideal human settlement.

Sustainability

The project adopts the concept of sustainable architecture, intending to reduce environmental loads, integrate with the environment, and benefit the health of residents. This project mainly implements the concept of sustainable architecture from the aspect of carbon emissions reduction.

The project is located in a region that features scorching summers and cold winters. The low-carbon building design needs to provide protection from heat in summer and coldness in winter. To that end, low-carbon building solutions are adopted in the following aspects:
1. Architectural layout
The master plan of the buildings considers utilizing sunlight in winter and avoiding prevailing wind directions in winter, as well as facilitating ventilation in summer.
2. Indoor wind environment
The interior spaces, layouts and structures of residences are optimized, to enhance natural ventilation and reduce reliance on fresh air system and air conditioning system.
3. Envelope structures
While controlling costs, new materials and technologies are used to improve the thermal insulation performance of the building envelope. This can effectively improve indoor temperature conditions in winter and summer, reduce the demand for air conditioning systems, and indirectly reduce carbon emissions.
4. “Sponge City” techniques
“Sponge city” techniques such as sunken green spaces, permeable pavements and rainwater recycling systems are adopted during the construction process to reduce resource waste.

Architecture - Proposed - International

This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow. The project can be a concept, tender or personal project, i.e. proposed space.
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