China Fortune Tian Di is a new office campus located in the Xuhui District of Shanghai and is known for attracting tenants focused on innovation. Through interplay of folds and cuts, the sites pedestrian circulation and overall function within the landscape is defined through a variety of views, texture, light and topography.  Voids found in colorful rooftop meadows give space and light into courtyards below.  This ‘built’ topographical setting showcases how nature and architecture blend and visually demonstrates how the integrated practice of landscape and architecture can convey a dramatic environmental awareness.

The site is located by the edge of a canal previously unknown to the public. The canal grey walls were replaced with a tree-lined embankment of Taxodium trees, native grasses and wildflowers with floating gardens added as an aquatic pollution deterrent. The canal now hosts a public walking path along its edge where nature reclaims its rightful place in the heart of Shanghai.

Landscape and architecture both create a sense of movement. The building’s façades are covered in vertical blades which protect the structures from the powerful Shanghai summer sun. They combine various different hues; one side covered with pale gold aluminum and the other with ceramic in shades of green and blue, depending on the façades. This dual interplay of color and material, depending on their location creates a sense of movement of green, blue and golden yellow hues. As a response, the color found within a landscape of native grasses and wildflowers including Yellow Tickseed (Coreopsis grandiflora), White Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritime), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea Moench) and Chrysanthemum compliment the architecture and are choreographed to be in a constant motion of seasonal hue as the landscape moves up and through the building. The ecological role of both architecture and landscape ceases to be a separate agenda; their integration achieves an organic link that both, architecture and landscape become connected.

Project category: Commercial Office Park (Campus)

Landscape Architect: Design Land Collaborative Ltd (DLC)

Client: Shanghai Yihui Investment Management Co. Ltd

Architect: Jacques Ferrier Architecture

Project location: XuHui District, Shanghai, China

Completion: 2016