Golden A' Design Award Winner 2022
Architectural form language operates through established conventions of verticality, aspiration, and distinction, where the sculptural massing of these tower elements transcends purely functional accommodation to communicate ambition, innovation, and institutional presence within the competitive metropolitan symbolic economy, the tripartite arrangement suggesting both unity through connection and individual identity through articulation, potentially evoking archetypal configurations of family or community while maintaining hierarchical clarity through central emphasis and flanking support. The horizontal banding that defines the facade treatment carries multiple resonances: geological stratification suggesting natural formation and temporal accumulation, textile or woven patterns evoking craft traditions and material culture, musical staffs suggesting rhythmic composition and harmonic relationships, or perhaps technological infrastructure and systematic organization, the repetitive rhythm creating visual coherence across substantial vertical distances while allowing subtle variations that prevent monotony and reward sustained observation, the bands potentially functioning both structurally as floor plates and symbolically as layers of habitation, activity, and collective urban life stacked vertically in response to land scarcity and density requirements. The organic torsion and curvature of the tower profiles suggests engagement with natural morphology and biomimetic design philosophy, the forms potentially evoking plant growth patterns responding to light and environmental conditions, wind-sculpted geological formations, fluid dynamics frozen in solid material, or the human body's gentle curves and asymmetries, thereby humanizing monumental scale and suggesting architecture as living responsive entity rather than static object, the twisting gesture perhaps symbolizing dynamism, progress, transformation, or the spiraling complexity of contemporary urban existence. Water throughout the composition functions as carrier of profound symbolic freight: the expansive naturalistic water bodies suggesting primordial elements, life-sustaining resources, reflective consciousness, purification and renewal, boundary definition between terrestrial and aquatic realms, while the dramatic fountain jets transform static water into kinetic performance, the vertical thrust opposing gravitational pull suggesting triumph over limitation, celebration and joy, abundance and generosity, the illuminated plumes creating ephemeral architecture of light and liquid that exists only in momentary choreography before falling and reforming, metaphor for transience, renewal, and the eternal cycles that govern natural and human systems. The circular pavilion geometry activates ancient sacred forms, the circle representing wholeness, unity, eternity, democratic equality where all points maintain equivalent relationship to center, cosmic order and celestial perfection, the concentric layering suggesting nested scales of community from individual to family to neighborhood to city, or perhaps consciousness layers from material to psychological to spiritual, the stepped profile potentially referencing amphitheater traditions where collective witnessing and shared experience create social cohesion and cultural transmission, the pristine white material treatment suggesting purity, clarity, idealism, neutrality as ground for infinite possibility, or perhaps the blank page or canvas awaiting human inscription through use and occupation. The integration of substantial landscape infrastructure reflects contemporary recognition of nature's essential role within urban health and resilience, the generous green space challenging purely extractive development models to propose reciprocal relationships where built density generates resources sufficient to provide collective amenity, the sinuous organic forms of water and vegetation creating yin counterbalance to yang architectural geometry, soft responsive natural systems complementing hard permanent constructed systems, the biophilic integration potentially serving therapeutic and restorative functions while providing habitat corridors, microclimate modification, and carbon sequestration services, the landscape thereby functioning simultaneously at pragmatic environmental, psychological experiential, and symbolic cultural registers. The chromatic relationship between cool architectural materiality and warm atmospheric and lighting conditions creates thermal dialogue suggesting balance between technological precision and human warmth, rationality and emotion, permanent structure and transient experience, the luminous quality of the towers establishing them as active light sources rather than merely illuminated objects, contemporary interpretation of lighthouse, lantern, or beacon archetypes that historically served orientational and symbolic functions marking significant thresholds, destinations, or hazards within geographic and cultural landscapes. The twilight temporal moment carries particular symbolic weight, representing threshold, transition, ambiguity, and possibility, the moment when diurnal and nocturnal realms briefly coexist, when definitions soften and boundaries blur, when transformation occurs and new configurations emerge, the blue hour traditionally associated with contemplation, mystery, romance, and magic, a liminal zone between states that invites reflection on impermanence, change, and the cycles that structure temporal experience, the visualization's choice to present the architecture during this charged moment suggesting design conceived not as static artifact but as participant in daily and seasonal rhythms, responsive to changing light conditions, occupation patterns, and atmospheric effects across time. The comprehensive aerial vantage point from which the composition is viewed traditionally represents divine perspective, godlike omniscience, or contemporary satellite and drone surveillance, the elevated viewpoint providing strategic clarity and systematic understanding while necessarily distancing viewer from ground-level phenomenological experience, the choice to present the development from this commanding position potentially suggesting confidence, transparency, comprehensive planning, and invitation to understand the project's total organization and contextual integration, while the slight oblique angle humanizes the geometric plan view maintaining some connection to earthbound embodied experience rather than pure abstract mapping.
Located in the CBD area of the city, the project is next to Diehu Lake, the main landscape of the central axis. Taking advantage of the natural landscape of Diehu Lake, the twin towers are inspired by the form of a butterfly. With the objective of the backyard of Shanghai and Qidong Citizens' Leisure Circle, as well as a great healthy ideal community, the complex will become a healthy community featuring ecological residences with fitness parks. The project integrates a new lifestyle and opens a new chapter in Qidong with a butterfly form to express the inheritance of the times.