RIKEN YAMAMOTO，2000-06

Prominent from Beijing’s Third Ting Road, this partially constructed housing development occupies a prime location opposite the China World Trade Centre. It was masterminded by the Chinese developer Beijing Redstone Jianwai Real Estate, under its SOHO China umbrella. The company conceives Jianwai SoHo as a new-generation living and commercial environment under its SOHO china’s first residential complex, SOHO New Town, located a few blocks away.

     Japanese architecture Riken Yamamoto won the commission to design Jianwai Soho following an invited international competition managed by the developer. The site has a gross floor area of 700,000 square metres and will contain eighteen Soho apartment blocks accommodating 2069 residents units, two office buildings with up to 364 office spaces, and four villas. Commercial activities will include 400 retail stores, and cafe, restaurants and entertainment venues. Phase one of the construction programme, encompassing nine towers, was completed in April 2004.

     The extraordinary cluster of towers is configured around a complex landscaped plateau of narrow winding lanes and grass-lined walkways, so that at ground level the experience of the streetscape recalls the scale and ambience of Beijing’s traditional hutongs. But it is also intended to recreate the vibrancy and diversity that characterize the Western experience of Soho in New York or London. The architecture has inserted fourteen alleyways that weave their way through the site and tie different parts of the community together. These meandering paths break into casual seating areas, gardens and play spaces. They also from the major arterial access points into development, knitting it into the surrounding urban fabric.

     By day or night, the strongly gridded elevations from an easily identifiable profile against the city skyline. Within the residential units, that language translates into living spaces that congregate around light-lifted terraces with roof gardens. The regular configuration of the floor plans ensures that space is optimized while maintaining maximum flexibility.

Right
Floor-to-ceiling windows and expansive terraces allow natural light to penetrate the living spaces of the residential units.

Opposite
At street level, small-scale commercial activities permeate the apartment complex and occupy an internal circulation route of landscaped bridges and paths. The gridded facades are illuminated at night.