Location: Ganzhou City, China.

Architect: Shanghai Urban Architecture Design Co.,Ltd.

The International Expo City Retail and Service Center is located in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, and is situated in the core of Ganzhou High-tech Industrial Park. The center will provide retail space and service facilities for the community, as well as a space for development exhibitions. The design of the center is based on the local Hakka culture of southern Jiangxi province, specifically the traditional Square-shaped Hakka walled village. The center has two levels and a gross floor area of 1819sqm. The design aims to use modern architecture language to create a traditional local culture space that reproduces the wisdom of the Hakka people and inherits the symbiosis space that integrates ‘ancestral hall, home and fort’. The design recreates the space to connect the man-made function and the nature as the Chinese saying ‘Tao comes from the nature’. The highlights of the design are four feature courtyards: Welcome Courtyard, Middle Hall, Etiquette Patio, and Water Yard. The Welcome Yard is a ceremonial space for welcoming users, and the design extracts the spatial features of the horizontal eaves that extend inward and vertical space enclosed by the translucent curtain walls towards the sky. The Middle Hall is a smaller public space where most family activities will take place. The Etiquette Patio is a semi-outdoor space for people to have daily activities in all-weather conditions. The Water Yard is a “geomantic pond” that is located in front of the big size Hakka Square House. The four courtyards of the exhibition center are connected in series to form a multi-layered etiquette space. The building not only meets the requirement of the multi-function such as retail, service center, and exhibit halls but also creates the unique feelings of local Hakka Culture. The design of the center is different from the famous neighborhood Fujian Hakka Round House, which is also a part of the Hakka culture. The outer perimeter of the center is mostly solid walls to provide defense, and as a result, the courtyard is the only public space where people can feel the sun and gather together. It is also a spirit space to provide the space for festival activities and important events. The design inherits the traditional features of Hakka Square House, and through the well-designed sequence of the space, people’s feeling of the local traditional culture can be evoked. The Greenland Ganzhou International Expo City Retail and Service Center is located about 1,500 meters from the new Ganzhou high-speed railway station.