BAI JIA

Client proposal for an office and retail complex, Beijing, P. R. China, 2004

Programme: Offices, Retail: 26860 m2, Apartments: 33320 m2, Sports and entertainment areas: 2550 m2, Parking: 23600 m2, External green areas: 3700 m2, Total construction area: 90000 m2

Design team: marcosandmarjan with Jia Lu and Steve Pike.

Positioned at the leading public edge of the site on the eastern side of the busy Third Ring Road in Beijing, the proposal denies the typical enclosed tower-typology that would detach the building from any ground floor human interaction. Instead, at the lower public level, the mass of the building dissipates among a cluster of organic, clustered elements and volumes supports future potential expansion of the site and proposal. The resulting plan and the main volumetric presence of the building respond to the influence of imaginary and purely fictional internal and external forces – given by pedestrian circulation, structural restrictions, solar influence, and visual relations.