Harmonious Urban Complex

The 1.1 km linear site features six plots, designed with a “Dual Retail Anchors, Tri-Ground Levels and Dual Retail Streets” approach to overcome challenges in distance and height difference. The design team devised a planning framework that factored in site constraints, values, users, and place-making opportunities. The outcome is a masterful fusion of urban space, public areas, waterfronts and TOD, connecting people, culture, innovation, and ecology.

This ambitious United Investment and Properties’ project is situated along the Huashan River in Wuhan, China. It fills the gap in a large-scale commercial business center in Huashan New City and provides essential life services for high-tech industry professionals and residents in the Greater Optics Valley. The site spans an area of 186,000 square meters with a GFA of 640,000 square meters, and an estimated construction cost of 10.1 billion RMB.

The project capitalizes on the natural river typology and site conditions by introducing a tri-ground circulation system that defines three datum planes. The B1/River Level connects to the waterfront and the metro station, while Level 1 links to the neighbouring residential development. Level 2 forms elevated connections that traverse the crossroads. This configuration generates a stacked dual retail street design, with B1-L1 emphasizing riverfront engagement and lifestyle, and L2-L3 retail areas focusing on regional destination retail, including major anchor tenant shops in the trade mix.

The two primary retail anchors, positioned at the development’s extremities, foster a network of multiple streets that, in conjunction with the retail anchors, cultivate a vibrant retail experience and unify the entire development. This innovative “multi-streets typology” diverges from conventional retail street models, yielding a more fluid and flexible spatial organization that accommodates a dynamic and diverse array of movement and circulation patterns.