Location: Beijing, China.

Architect: Spark architects.

SPARK’s ‘pleated’ and ‘woven’ façade for the Jing Mian Xin Cheng mixed-use development in Beijing won the ‘Best Office and Business Development’ award at the MIPIM Asia Awards 2013. The façade was inspired by the former textile market that operated on the site, with pleats of perforated aluminium sheeting and a weave of rippling windows resolving practical issues while referencing the market. The façade also baffle traffic noise and offer acoustic protection to the interior, with the weave effect on the towers concentrated at the lower levels, fading out with height. The woven glazing also establishes new opportunities for ventilation, with smaller, lighter, and much easier to use side windows providing a practical and low-tech solution to a common problem. The landscape design for the plaza establishes a habitable topography of folds on the horizontal plane, creating seating and demarcating different zones for different activities. This continuation of the theme in the landscape design assures a pedestrian experience as impactful as the visual experience of the passing motorist.

Photo credit: ShuHe.