Diamond Hill, a highly cultivated massive mixed-use project located in Shenyang, China, whose residential, office, and retail spaces will be developed atop a fully integrated transportation hub, was just announced this week by Hollywood, California-based architecture firm 5+design. The hub will connect Shenyang's regional mass transit network with a transportation interchange that includes a bus depot and an LRT station on the project's ground floor. apartments for sale
This link to the rest of the city will ensure tourists have easy access to the project, as well as attracting young home owners who rely on public transportation.
Diamond Hills' sophisticated architecture emerged from the mapping of sunlight onto the site, which was inspired by the mountains of traditional Chinese landscape paintings. 5+design was able to produce a layered design that met strict local code criteria for sun and shadow in relation to residential buildings by analyzing the direction of the sun.
"We were ecstatic to be a part of such a massive creation that is so vital to the city," said the project's lead designer. According to project designer Ramon Hone, "there are code ordinances in China that mandate each residential building to receive a minimum of two hours of sunlight on the shortest day of the year." "This means that surrounding structures must be built to avoid blocking the light. The challenge with this project was that there was a 7 floor-to-area ratio, which means you could build 7 times the area of the site, but we were only allowed to build 100 meters high due to a height limit. So the sun analysis was the only way to rationalize the design with the constraints. We studied the sun's direction on the site and extruded volumes from the site to the highest height possible without exceeding the height limit or obstructing the sun's path. Diamond Hill was formed from the resulting mass."
5+design met building size specifications of 77,000 square meters of residential space, 23,000 square meters of SOHO lofts for a younger population, 42,000 square meters of office space, and 74,000 square meters of retail space. Sufficient widths for all three building styles were met while retaining the sun code specifications by hollowing out the middle of the project and leaving a donut-like perimeter of residences.
Diamond Hill's mountainous profile was achieved by removing areas of the project that obscured sun access to residents, giving the project a completely different look and feel from every angle.
The four-story mall, which will be surrounded by office and residential buildings with dramatic profiles that echo snow-capped peaks and lush valleys, will be topped by a roof garden and massive skylights to defend against the Laoning province's harsh winters.
"Diamond Hill needed a great deal of pre-design research due to the severity of the environment where the project is situated, which has influenced the final shape," said 5+design Managing Partner Michael Ellis. "It's exciting to turn a project with so many constraints into a coherent and vibrant space that will become a new Shenyang destination."
The exteriors will feature alternating panels of glass and porcelain to evoke textured layers of sedimentary rock, and 5+design's material palette will further reinforce the landscape metaphor. The atrium in the center of the project is designed to resemble a pristine lake, with translucent and fritted glass skylights that enable light to stream down from all floors, similar to a series of mountain lakes.