Xi’an CCBD
Xi’an CCBD
Heatherwick Studio
ARCHITECTS
Heatherwick Studio
PROJECT LEADERS
Luis Sacristán Murga, Simon Winters, Angel Tenorio
MANUFACTURERS
Hede, Tob, Yi Design
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Thomas Heatherwick
GROUP LEADER
Mat Cash
PROJECT MANAGERS
Consuelo Manna, Jimmy Hung
TECHNICAL DESIGN LEADERS
Nick Ling, Maura Ambrosiano
ARCHITECTURE DESIGN TEAM
Adam Brown, Alfredo Chavez, Almu Rodrigue, Anjie Gu, Aziz Hoque, Blue Tuohy, Cong Wang, Consuelo Manna, Eric Lim, Erich Breuer, Fanos Katsaris, Francis Ng, Freddie Lomas, Hannah Parker, Hannah Steenson, Helen Siu, James Ness, Jethro Rebollar, Ji Qi, Jimmy Hung, Ko-cheng Liu, Kong Hoang, Linus Cheng, Luis Sacristán Murga, Luke Plumbley, Manuel Ramos, Marwah Osama, Mat Cash, Matthew Magee, Meera Yadave, Michael Kloihofer, Nick Ling, Remi Phillips-hood, Sherry Xiao, Silvia Rueda Cuellar, Simon Winters, Simone Berardelli, Sonila Kadillari, Steven Howson, Victoria Dong, Vito Sugianto, Willow Tang
LANDSCAPE DESIGN TEAM
Aziz Hoque, Consuelo Manna, Erich Breuer, Fanos Katsaris, Hamze Machmouchi, Harriet Gargrave, Jimmy Hung, Kate Le Masurier, Kelvin Lam, Luis Sacristán Murga, Mat Cash, Maura Ambrosiano, Paul Chu, Philipp Nedomlel, Remi Phillips-hood, Sherry Xiao, Winki Ho, Yijia Li
XI’AN TREE DESIGN TEAM
Angel Tenorio, Andrew Friedenberg, Anjie Gu, Cameron Overy, Consuelo Manna, Diana Mykhaylychenko, Dirce Medina Patatuchi, Fabian Hubner, Ji Qi, Jimmy Hung, Joanna Sabak, Joe Brennan, Kyriakos Chatziparaskevas, Martynas Kasiulevicius, Mat Cash, Nick Ling, Nicolas Ombres, Ondrej Pokoj, Peter Romvari, Sherry Xiao, Theophile Peju
INTERIORS DESIGN TEAM
Agnes Kerecsanin, Aleksandar Bursac, Alice Dousova, Andre Kong, Ayumi Konishi, Aziz Hoque, Beau Lawrence, Blue Tuohy, Bori Kovacs, Carrick Blore, Charlotte Mccarthy, Chen He, Chen Yue, Consuelo Manna, Edward Milton, Emric John-sawyer, Ezgi Terzioglu, Fanos Katsaris, Flavio Sousa Monteiro, Francesca Morroni, Francesca Valentino, Freddie Lomas, Hannah Francis, Harriet Gargrave, James Harris, Jimmy Hung, Ji Qi, Joe Brennan, Karim Hallak, Kelvin Lam, Krina Christopoulou, Liang-yu Sung, Lijing Zhou, Marcus Hawk, Mark Mckee, Mary Suen, Martynas Kasiulevicius, Matthew Heitel, Mat Cash, Maura Ambrosiano, May Tang, Moira Geddes, Natasha Trumic, Nick Ling, Noa Guy, Olga Rienda, Oliver Zhu, Paul Brooke, Pennie Dawes, Ragavendran Gowrisankar, Silvia Rueda Cuellar, Simone Berardelli, Sofia Hagen, Thomas Thornton, Xirong Zheng
FACADE LOCAL DESIGN INSTITUTES
Ktf
INTERIOR LOCAL DESIGN INSTITUTES
Sky Design
LANDSCAPE LOCAL DESIGN INSTITUTES
Green
LIGHTING LOCAL DESIGN INSTITUTES
Hda
CLIENT
China Resources Land (Cr Land)
COLLABORATORS ARCHITECTS
Gp Architects, 10 Design, Lacime, Kpf
FACADE ENGINEERING
Arup
STRUCTURE ENGINEERING
Rbs, Cft
MEP ENGINEERING
Wsp
LANDSCAPE DESGIN
Landworks, Wtd
LIGHTING CONSUTLANT
Speirs+major
VISUALISATIONS
Mir, Devisual, Slashcube
ENGINEERING COLLABORATORS
Robotics Plus
LOCAL DESIGN INSTITUTES
Jzfz
PHOTOGRAPHS
Yanqing Zhu, Luis Sacristan Murga
AREA
155000 M²
YEAR
2024
LOCATION
Xi'an, China
CATEGORY
Mixed Use Architecture, Office Buildings, Commercial Architecture
A new district designed by Heatherwick studio has opened in Xi'an, honouring the Chinese city's legacy of craftmanship and ceramics.
The Xi'an Centre Culture Business District (CCBD) is located south of the city's historic centre between the ruins of the Temple of Heaven and the prominent Shaanxi TV tower.
The district blends a retail podium with walkable streets, terraces and open plazas, offices, apartments, accommodation, green spaces, and a vertical park.
Ceramics are at the heart of the 155,000m² neighbourhood, with crafted tiles cladding the facade, columns and curving beams, a nod to the ancient capital's famous Terracotta Army.
The design team worked closely with local makers to produce more than 100,000 tiles with a unique glaze.
Following over 2,000 experiments, including constructing 1:1 mock ups of the columns, the resulting facade brings interest and intricacy to the exterior of the buildings and invites visitors not just to look at but also touch the tiles.
Thomas Heatherwick, founder and design director of Heatherwick studio, said: "Here in Xi'an, we were excited to create a commercial district which gave the city an extraordinary new piece of public space.
Instead of simply making different buildings, and paving and planting the spaces between them, there was the opportunity to craft an unexpected three-dimensional urban landscape on many levels, where citizens of the city can promenade and meet each other.
Pursuing our interest in people's human scale experience of places, we also had the chance to integrate many special constructional details, to help make the project as engaging as possible for people to walk around.
The goal of the whole project was to find a joyful and contemporary way to respond to the history of Xi'an, and bring people together."
The outdoor streets of the district converge at the central plaza where the Xi'an Tree, a vertical park, creates a natural gathering point.
Visitors can ascend its 56 elevated 'petals', or terraces where a sequence of cascading gardens follows the biomes of the ancient Silk Route from the alpine tundra to the dry steppe.
Standing over 57 meters high from the basement level the Tree offers views across the development with its varying levels of roofs, terraces and streets, as well as the city beyond.
The district has been designed to offer visual complexity from three distances. At a city-scale, it appears as a new neighbourhood of the city with a distinctive skyline inspired by the roofs of the Chinese temples of Xi'an.
At a street distance, the varying levels created by the interlocking frames and landscape terraces provide different vantage points of the central plaza as well as the city around it.
Finally, at door-level, the design offers a sensory experience in its use of materials and nature, such as ceramic planters and soft-edged stones in the paving patterns.
Mat Cash, partner and group leader at Heatherwick studio said: "Super large-scale developments are being built all over the world to satisfy rapidly urbanising populations.
By their very nature they are often overbearing, singular and devoid of character – they do nothing for people they are meant to serve.
As a counterpoint, we wanted to infuse our project in Xi'an with the spirit, variety, and texture that happens naturally in cities over time.
The district pays homage to the city's tradition of making and its historic connection to ceramics.
It is a place which invites you to reach out and touch it – with glazed lift buttons and door handles to hand-carved timber handrails and seats.
We hope it will be a place that feels immediately a part of the city and where visitors to the neighbourhood will want to spend time in the decades to come." Xi'an CCBD's public spaces opened to visitors in December 2024.
