NDU HQ

NDU is mixed used development situated in Hexi District, also known as the “City reception Room” of Tianjin, China. The building sets itself as an urban catalyst, an in-between mediator between architecture and landscape, indoor and outdoor, residential neighborhood and cultural emerging hub; the project explores the in-betweenness / thresholds instilled in the concept of MA. While the building cascades vertically to bring the sidewalk to the roof garden and the urban alley to the building corridor; the Ying & Yang of the two sloped buildings embracing themselves into oneness with the surroundings. The building users, as well as wanderers, walk on and into the building, similar to Chinese mountains, where the access points act as caves that penetrate the building from the city. The experience is illustrated on the landscape and the continuous connecting bio-morphic tubes; these tubes act as a connecting mechanism which leads to the affiliated spaces and weaves them with the office spaces and landscape alike. The building elevates from the ground up, maintaining an urban underpass/ gap in-between that divides into two parts on the ground floor anchored by two circulation / service cores. A public plaza to the east resonates with all the gardens scattered in the residential neighborhoods to the eastside. A permeable envelope with public programs and multiple entries animate the ground floor. The permeability of the envelope migrates to upper floors through the cascading landscape that is tied to the indoor programs with the affiliated spaces bleeding in-between.


Award: Certificate of Honor Shortlist