Shanghai, China
Golden Leaf Gardens by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture for China Overseas Land and Investment (COLI) is a landmark project designed to create a new neighborhood that functions as the center of the vibrant new Zhenru Central Business District in Shanghai.
This new district is an innovation cluster that has deep connections to the historic Zhenru Region, the larger Putuo District, and the overall City of Shanghai.
Functioning as a multi-generational culture, leisure, and lifestyle center, activity nodes with planned events and social spaces invite users to engage in their surroundings and participate as members of the new community.
For its future-toward design, Golden Leaf Gardens has recently been awarded a 2022 Green GOOD DESIGN Sustainability Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Three site connectivity elements that create an unmistakably unique sense of place:
1. The ancient ginkgo tree: preservation and celebration across the entire project site;
2. The Zhenru Ecological Watercourse: an important connection that is historically tied to the Wusong and Huangpu Rivers as part of the larger Yangtze River Delta;
3. The new Zhenru Ecological Park: a natural asset that connects the neighborhood to a growing urban landscape.
Project elements are positioned to terrace inward along the new connections, creating unique spaces for activity and environments that help the park connect to the surrounding environment.
The new Zhenru CBD will be a vibrant and exceptional development, one that is intelligently planned and created for people with a multi-generational lifestyle that is knit into the larger community.
Looking toward the future of collaborative commercial work and retail space, the role of technology has become just as important as the integration of the natural environment.
To stimulate and innovate, a space needs to aspire to a range of qualities—inspirational, collaborative, reflective, harmonious, and even private, all with the goal of increasing the well-being of the user.
The goal is to create indoor and outdoor spaces which will:
• Create a Unique Retail Experience
• Create Responsive and Adaptable Spaces
• Promote Collaboration
• Foster Community
• Provide Choice
• Connect to Nature
• Ensure Comfort
• Increase Productivity
Based on the site layout, solar orientation, view, and connectivity to green space, the design provides the optimized site plan when considering vehicles and pedestrians, employees and visitors, and service deliveries.
The architectural design creates optimized massing for a social atrium amenity and cultural space, as well as landmark features such as towers.
The double-wall system allows the creation of indoor spaces that are well-lit—without glare—and thermally comfortable due to automated solar management, while also providing natural ventilation when external conditions are favorable.
Internally, the atria provide access to interior green spaces, while generating opportunities for unique meeting spaces.
Best in class, quiet IoT-connected natural ventilation, centralized high-purity air filtration, and digital fan coil units help control the indoor environment.
The nature of the nearby park finds its way into the project via the terraced rooftops.
Outdoor and indoor garden terraces create maximum retail exposure and support a variety of activities and experiences.
Green roofs are also the basis for the sponge city rainwater management strategy.
The project will manage 100% of its rainwater on-site, supporting a robust approach to resiliency.
The buildings are designed to be certified under the USGBC’s LEED rating scheme as LEED Platinum for core and shell.
The programming produces a dynamic and stimulating environment with outdoor working spaces, private restaurant patios, quiet reflection corners, sculpture gardens, and educational exhibition areas for tenants and visitors.
The design currently allocates new program types into a cultural program strategy that integrates art programs, exhibitions, and educational spaces, in addition to traditional gallery spaces.
Future programs can be created as the market dictates, such as educational spaces or innovative co-working spaces.
Flexible retail spaces provide spaces that are re-programmable for future changes in retail requirements.
A key component to the success of the retail program relies on its overall strategy of flexibility.
The design of modular “pods” lets the retailer tenant determine size and configuration.
The overall geometry enables views to and from the retail program from multiple vantage points, giving high visibility to retail tenants and connecting spaces across the masterplan and into the surrounding neighborhood.
The site’s activity will overflow into the residential neighborhoods and other sites of the master plan.
Project: Golden Leaf Gardens
Architects: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Client: China Overseas Land and Investment (COLI)
Images Courtesy of the Architects
