Jian Wai SOHO
Beijing, People’s Republic of China · 2004
Photo · Tomio Ohashi
A precedent for high-density urban master planning, demonstrating how a gridded, modular facade language can unify a massive complex of towers around a multi-level pedestrian public realm.
Materials
- glass
- white-painted-metal
- concrete
- steel
Visual identifiers
- gridded-facade
- sunken-courtyard
- pedestrian-bridge
- glowing-towers
- urban-density
Style tags
- minimalist
- high-tech
- modular
- rationalist
Visual tags
- high-rise
- mixed-use
- megastructure
- twilight-photography
- grid-geometry
- urban-canyon
- Geometry
- A dense cluster of high-rise towers with regular, square-grid facades surrounds a lower, multi-tiered central pavilion. The central pavilion features a sunken courtyard with pedestrian bridges and a rooftop terrace.
- Facade system
- Floor-to-ceiling window wall system with white-painted aluminum mullions forming a continuous grid.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete core and column structure with flat slabs
- Spatial scale
- Mega-scale urban development; the towering high-rises dwarf the multi-story central pavilion and pedestrian-scale bridges.
- Lighting
- Dusk or twilight lighting with a deep blue sky; the buildings are illuminated from within, casting a cool, cyan-tinted glow through the gridded glass facades.
- Atmosphere
- A futuristic, hyper-dense urban environment humming with cool, internal light against a deep twilight sky.
- Environmental context
- A high-density, master-planned urban commercial and residential district in Beijing.
- Spatial experience
- The composition creates a highly dense, layered urban canyon. The viewer looks down into a sunken courtyard and across to a central pavilion, framed on all sides by towering, glowing office or residential blocks.
- Composition rhythm
- A relentless, repeating square grid across the high-rise facades contrasts with the more vertically elongated bays of the central low-rise pavilion.
- Style reading
- High-tech minimalist structural expressionism
- Program
- Mixed-use commercial, office, and residential development
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- glass, white-painted-metal, concrete, steel
- Visual identifiers
- gridded-facade, sunken-courtyard, pedestrian-bridge, glowing-towers, urban-density
- Style tags
- minimalist, high-tech, modular, rationalist
- Visual tags
- high-rise, mixed-use, megastructure, twilight-photography, grid-geometry, urban-canyon
- Geometry
- A dense cluster of high-rise towers with regular, square-grid facades surrounds a lower, multi-tiered central pavilion. The central pavilion features a sunken courtyard with pedestrian bridges and a rooftop terrace.
- Facade system
- Floor-to-ceiling window wall system with white-painted aluminum mullions forming a continuous grid.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete core and column structure with flat slabs
- Spatial scale
- Mega-scale urban development; the towering high-rises dwarf the multi-story central pavilion and pedestrian-scale bridges.
- Lighting
- Dusk or twilight lighting with a deep blue sky; the buildings are illuminated from within, casting a cool, cyan-tinted glow through the gridded glass facades.
- Atmosphere
- A futuristic, hyper-dense urban environment humming with cool, internal light against a deep twilight sky.
- Environmental context
- A high-density, master-planned urban commercial and residential district in Beijing.
- Spatial experience
- The composition creates a highly dense, layered urban canyon. The viewer looks down into a sunken courtyard and across to a central pavilion, framed on all sides by towering, glowing office or residential blocks.
- Composition rhythm
- A relentless, repeating square grid across the high-rise facades contrasts with the more vertically elongated bays of the central low-rise pavilion.
- Style reading
- High-tech minimalist structural expressionism
- Program
- Mixed-use commercial, office, and residential development
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture