Gold Urban Planning and Urban Design · 2020
Light Portal Future Rail City
by QUAD Studio
- A' Design Award 2020 Gold Winner in Urban Planning and Urban Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: QUAD studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 152,635
- Verification code 3DACC6574D · Verify this award
About Light Portal Future Rail City
Light Portal is masterplan of Yibin Highspeed Rail City. A reform of lifestyle recommends to all age all year round. Next to Yibin High Speed Rail Station which operated since June 2019, Yibin Greenland Centre comprises of 160m tall mixed-use Twin Towers integrate architecture and nature with the 1km long landscape boulevard. Yibin has a history for more than 4000 years, accumulating wisdom and culture just like the sediment in the river marked the development of Yibin. The Twin Towers serve as a light portal to guide visitors as well as a landmark for residents to assemble.
QUAD studio's Light Portal Future Rail City emerges from the contemporary discourse surrounding ecological urbanism and transit-oriented development, presenting a visionary approach to metropolitan planning that seeks reconciliation between the demands of density and the imperatives of biophilic design, the composition suggests engagement with parametric design methodologies that have transformed landscape architecture practice, allowing organic geometries to flow through the rigid matrix of the existing urban grid with apparent effortlessness, technically the rendering demonstrates sophisticated command of aerial visualization conventions while the chromatic strategy employs a restrained palette of architectural grays against which the saturated greens and jewel-toned accent colors of the landscape interventions achieve maximum visual impact, the formal organization around a central green spine activates historical precedents from the garden city movement through contemporary linear park projects, yet the biomorphic character of the planted zones suggests a distinctly twenty-first century sensibility informed by computational design and ecological systems thinking, thematically the work appears to meditate upon the possibility of urban environments that nurture rather than diminish human connection to natural systems, the flowing forms seeming to channel water, vegetation, and pedestrian movement through the metropolitan fabric like vital arteries through a living organism, iconographically the white birds visible in flight above the landscape invoke traditional symbols of freedom, peace, and the aspiration toward elevated states of being, their presence suggesting that this designed environment welcomes not only human inhabitants but also non-human species within its ecological vision, viewers might contemplate how such planning approaches could transform their own urban experiences and what qualities make public spaces truly restorative.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Integrating architecture and nature, shaping new lifestyles for future residents of Highspeed Rail City, Light Portal is designed meticulously. Located adjacent to Yibin High Speed Rail Station, Yibin Greenland Centre comprises of 160m tall mixed-use Twin Towers framing 1km long landscape boulevard.
QUAD believes a park should be multi-dimensional living platform rather than flat surface. To maximize the use of underground spaces, besides car park, a Botanic Educational Centre and a Sports Centre will be built underground in the east side of the park due to the natural topography. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Parametric designed solar shading device- aluminum fins in tower curtain wall system in 1.2m high x 300-500 deep a piece
Total Twin tower site area 37390 square metre
Total project construction area 15000 square metre
Twin tower building height 163m/168m
Total Central Park site area: 76570 square metre - Tags
- TOD, Yibin, High speed rail, mixed use, central park, intelligent city, Highspeedrail City
- Production Technology
- Main Construction Materials: steel, Low-e glass curtain wall, aluminum fins, stainless steel, limestone, homogeneous tile.
- Design Challenge
- Architects has to complete the design in tight construction cost and limited time, while the site, extra focus has put on designing terraces, public stars and ramps in central park due to its significant level difference along the north south axis. Local plant species carefully chosen to be evergreen, easy to maintain and compatible in colors and shapes with site surroundings.
- Project Duration
- The project is located in Yibin, China The design aimed to commence in mid 2020.
- Operation Flow
- Twin towers:
Vertical aluminum fins applied on tower curtain wall as main solar shading device, while the parametric-designed incremental change in fin depth along the façade generates a subtle and elegant wave pattern viewed from distant, echoing the Yangtze River concept.
Tower mass deliberately well proportioned reflecting different function in each zone by introducing a central slot throughout the height of tower. This LED embedded central slot gives out a mesmerizing, continuous beam of light projecting to the sky at night.
Twin tower podium:
Podium divided into 4 interlocking masses in order to create multi dimensioned open space and maximize the views to central park.
Central Park:
Over 1 km long central park consists of 4 plots connected by 3 serpentine footbridges, cladded in local blossoms, descending to heart of park in ramp.
Public viewing decks also provided at footbridges to provide best view to central park. - Research
- Architects envisions this mega project can be rooted in local Yibin culture and both facade design, landscape design and masterplanning can reveal the distinct regional natural features and its geographical significance.
Local plant species widely used and arranged as four seasons garden in central park. - Inspiration
- The Light Portal symbolized as gateway to Yibin and lighthouse for Yangtze River reflecting the distinctive geographical location of the city.
In this central axis park that bears ideal life of Yibin in the new era, based on the ecological context of the city, the designer conceived a large urban park and created a colourful painting for this green ecological city. With the twin towers flanking the fluid central landscape boulevard, the twin towers will represent a tower of light that will be the iconic symbol for the new Yibin High Speed Rail City. - Image Credits
- All images, ICON, 2019
Colors of Light Portal Future Rail City
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Local plant species widely used and arranged as four seasons garden in central park.