PLACING BEIJING
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Graduate Work Fall 2013
As China’s growth continues, investment into its infrastructure has taken an unplanned surge. While it is growing at unprecedented speeds, it is also being consumed at mass levels with no regard to the city. This project creates two very different responses to proposed forthcoming mass transit nodes. I worked on the western response, my partner, Brian Hong, worked on the eastern response, and we collaborated on creating the middle ground where these collide. Our site was connected to Beijing’s South Station railway, creating a connection with millions of Chinese in little time. The western part of the site would be developed into an entire new central business district for the capital. Not one of international finance, but of national finance. Connected to the country.
The master plan of this district is to take the current development paradigm of podium blocks with multiple towers, and raising up the podiums to allow for a larger ground plane. Beijing has one of the largest populations on the planet and very little public space. People of this district require more than a 3m wide walkway to navigate.
These blocks would then be turned inside out, allowing the front doors and life of buildings to be on the inside courtyard of each block, keeping the vehicular traffic to the outside.
These courtyards would connect to each other in a similar fashion to that of the Smithson’s Streets in the Sky concept. They would be connected above the street level to allow maximum flow of pedestrian traffic. The district will hold 100,000 people at peek time. In 2008, Beijing created South Station, a world-class portal to the center of China. Since 2008, there has been no response from the area around the station to the connection it continues to foster. With over 20-million people within an hour’s journey, I propose to create a new financial center for the city based on it’s transient possibilities. This would create a proper entrance to the capital. Before: After: 1:1000 Public Plan showing the circulation between the train platforms to various building platforms. The new entry to Beijing: 1:500 Model of one podium block. 1:500 Model detail showing how shaping can contribute to multiple floor plate availabilities for various tenants. I collaborated with Brian Hong to develop a highly mixed mid-rise district between the two primary nodes of our development. This district focused on having a Beijing-Size pedestrian avenue that weaved through various sized retail with courtyard developments to the outside for quieter office and residential units.
Beijing has retail that takes place on multiple levels, warranting for a circulation pattern above the ground plane.
Brian Hong completed our overall master plan by developing a new centralized media center for Beijing and China, Yongdingwood. He concurrently developed drawings and renderings for this district to create an overall new South Beijing city plan.
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