Hangzhou Congress Center / Peter Ruge Architekten / The Superslice

Peter Ruge Architekten:

The new building ensemble is situated close to huge Qiantang River not far from the city center. It will be the focus building of the new large business and administration district of the city. The new fascinating complex consists of six office high-rise buildings arranged in a circle and connect in the upper floors through a circular bridge building. The high-rise buildings are flanked with flat multi-functional buildings including four main entrances from all directions. As the new central form of the main administration building of the City of Hangzhou the Congress Center resembles a large precious stone.

The facade design should support on one hand the unique modern architecture of the building ensemble but on the other hand it should be take up typical local or traditional aspects of the region also.

Zhejiang Province is known for its tea-producing region. To express the building’s regional characteristics, design of the facade is based on the superimposed configurations of the tea cultivation pathways and the planting nets. As a result, the building is enveloped by a multi-layered fabric, giving it a true architectural plasticity. Seen from a distance, the facade appears like a rigid volume, but dissolves into a network of structures and levels as you come closer.

The main idea for the design of the roof was to use it as the fifth facade of the building to set up a strong and typical local image in the shape of a lotus blossom, which you can see from all upper floors of the surrounding high-rise buildings. The facade structure would be extended unto the roof of the congress center to cover up it partly. Through the different lengths and fixed height of the steel beams the structure is waved and form the abstract blossom of lotus in the center of the roof. This part isn’t covered and is designed and planted as a green landscape.

Our aim is to combine and express all the regional natural features within the Center, so that the local people will be able to identify themselves with the City of Hangzhou.