Huaxing New Town is located at the centre of the Suzhou Creek CBD in Shanghai. The area is known for its traditional shikumen, often translated as ‘lane houses’. The new development consists of two office towers and a connecting retail podium. The Rosewood Hotel, the first of its kind in Shanghai, is located on the upper levels of the tallest tower.
The 320-metre tower is a new marker on the skyline and offers spectacular views of Huangpu River Bay, West Bund and Suzhou Creek. The scheme respects its historic context while giving back to the city, providing a number of high-quality public spaces. The tallest tower’s massing steps back towards the top, reflecting the area’s vernacular architecture.
The towers’ high-quality office spaces enhance creativity and efficiency. The people-oriented, flexible layout includes communal spaces for wellbeing. The towers also provide triple and quadruple-height sky gardens which provide direct connections to the natural environment. A rotating louvre system is used to allow fresh air and light into these spaces. The smaller office tower is topped by a green roof garden that is open to the elements.
The Rosewood Hotel includes a number of luxury amenities, including a spa, swimming pool, gym, bar and restaurant. A helipad facilitates private arrivals for the hotel’s VIP guests. The sheltered sky gardens on the upper levels of the tower provide space for hotel guests to socialise and relax in.
The four-storey retail podium responds to the architectural language of the towers, visually uniting the various elements of the development. The low-rise buildings are sensitive to human scale and feature a warm material palette, including terracotta and granite, that references the area’s local streets. The first two floors are dedicated to high end retail, while the levels above provide event spaces and restaurants which service the hotel.
Huaxing New Town aims to achieve LEED Gold certification and a 2-star Green Building System rating.
