Introduction
Mixc Mall is located in the urban centre of Tongxiang. The historic Fengming Park is directly adjacent on the west, with CR Land’s landmark business centre on the east. The project aims to showcase the new urban image of the Future Yangjiamen Community in Tongxiang. Although the project—Tongxiang MixC Commercial Landscape Design—is only a typical commercial product that falls in CR Land, it is a symbolic benchmark commercial project that signifies growing economic prosperity in the Jiaxing region, reshaping the new urban identity and rejuvenating the old city.
Can a typical commercial product go viral?
A typical commercial project demands a high proportion of typical module usage, as required by the client in the design brief. Conventional design approach of applying typical modules throughout the project can easily lead to a lack of identity and experiential quality. In today’s competitive market, such developments become increasingly difficult to stand out distinctively.
“The most important thing in business is to be seen, recognized, loved, remembered and spread.”
We believe a typical commercial product should still have its own unique signature and personality, even if it’s just a conventional shopping mall. We should design multiplicity of experiences into the public realm to elevate consumer appeals and place-making for the project. Combined with our conceptual narrative for the landscape, our design strategy focuses on the “insertion of personality” and “differentiation of spatial qualities” as solutions to the challenges.
Make Personality Statements Beyond Generalized Identity
Conceptual Interpretation of the “Phoenix”:
In ancient times, it is rumoured that Tongxiang and its sycamore trees attracted phoenix to inhabit here, gaining its reputation as “the hometown of phoenix.” Throughout the ages, the local art of shadow puppetry has also grown in popularity in the area and has since become a unique cultural heritage in Tongxiang.
“The city is located in tongxiang, which was called fengming in ancient times. There were many sycamore trees in the past. It is said that during the five dynasties, phoenixes came to gather here.”
– Tongxiang County Chronicle
The design took inspiration from the legend and the city’s cultural heritage, and formed our design narrative and formal language centered around“acts of the phoenix”. Subtle formal abstractions of“phoenix” is meant to be open for the viewer’s own interpretation, aimed at expressing design ingenuity through exquisite change of details at key spaces in the public realm. Although a high proportion of standardized modules are still being applied in the design, our integrated design language has created artistic expressions that cohesively contributed to the project’s unique identity.
Act 1: Emergent Scales of the Phoenix (Gradient Paving Pattern at Entries):
Sesame black granite, Night snow granite, Angola black granite and Binzhou green granite in 60x60cm are used at the entrance plazas, creating a gradient pattern as visual guidance into the mall entrances. From a bird-eye view from above, the diffusion effect mimics the scales of the phoenix.
Act 2: Glides of the Spreaded Wings (Cascade Waterscape with Jump Springs):
A cascade water feature with jump springs is integrated into the slope at the northeast plaza. The 3-stepped formal composition of the waterscape is based on the abstraction of phoenix wings in gliding motion. The water surfaces with lighting create a mirroring effect to highlight the quality image of the vibrant entry space, acting as a prelude to the entire design narrative.
Act 3：Airborne Above the Clouds (Layered Waterscape with Fountains):
The multi-layering waterscape feature with fountains at the southeast plaza is a metaphor for the layers of clouds. The formal composition of interspersed water and planting forms quality display at the entry interface. Our minimalist use of design language obliquely slices the edges of the waterscape feature, presenting an exquisite sense of elegance.
Act 4: Mystic Search for the Phoenix (Folded Seating Edges at the Sunken Plaza):
The sunken plaza on the side of northeast plaza features layered terraces with obliquely-sliced seating steps at 30cm in thickness, ensuring structural stability, comfort for seating, and variations in the aesthetics of the space. The forms abstractly depict the momentum of phoenix, adding diversification of visual interests for the quality atmosphere of the sunken plaza.
Act 5: Festive Dance of the Phoenix (Installation Feature at Courtyard Plaza)
The interactive installation at the courtyard plaza acts as a focal feature, and its abstract shape simulates the posture of a phoenix dancing on a branch. The interactive feature is an integrated light pole that has a built-in ultrasonic atomization system to generate fogs and smoke bubbles, creating special effects for numerous public modes of interactions. The installation highlights participatory experiences to activate the public realm.
Define Experiential Quality Beyond Standardization – Value Propositions of Commercial Plazas
Commercial plazas can be considered to be the core and the most valuable public realm in a commercial development. It requires a site-specific“experience-oriented”design approach to deliberately differentiate spatial characteristics and characterize experiential qualities of each plaza.
“The attributes of the plaza are differentiated, and efforts are made to create a distinctive experience.”
In order to fully activate values of commercial plaza, we took a wider perspective to analytically research into its roles and functions within the spatial system, and differentiated experiential qualities into “good display for signification” and “good synergy for activity”.
The Quality Experience at Signification Plaza
DNA for Strong Signification:
Entrances at entry plazas at northeast and southeast are directly orientated towards city road junctions with foot traffic, giving the plazas strong qualities of visibility and accessibility. The architecture reinforces the entry image through its massing design, combined with flagship stores on both sides of the entrances, successfully created focal attractions for by-passing pedestrians and vehicles.We identified the two entry plazas as the most prominent“signification plaza”for the project, acting as visual anchors of quality display at the commercial public realm. The primary function of these plazas is to efficiently guide pedestrians into the mall while providing sense of signification.
Designing Towards Signification:
We focused our design towards creating“visual signification”on the premise of ensuring openness for visibility and accessibility. A gentle slope at entry provides easy access into the mall, and we’ve integrated a foreground waterscape on one side embedded into the terrain.
The cascading waterscape creates an elevated sense of quality in front of flagship anchor stores, and does not create unnecessary sight-line obstructions. The gentle slope leading into the entrances features pavage with gradient color change, visually guiding visitor movements into the mall.
There’s a sunken plaza on the side of northeast entry plaza that directly connects to shops at basement-level. The design team optimized its orientation and layout to maximize its visibility from ground level, and further translated it into cascading composition of steps and plantings to enhance its experiential quality and sense of scale.
The plantings are composed of asparagus densiflorus ‘myersii’, agapanthus africanus and buxus sinica, creating a three-dimensional experiential garden with rich textures integrated into the terraces. The garden atmosphere is both active and tranquil.
The Activate Synergy at Activity Plaza
DNA for Strong Activity:
There is an inward-facing courtyard plaza at the center of the project, enclosed by the l-shaped shopping mall. Although it is relatively hidden within the site, it is very well connected to internal circulations with multiple entrances into the plaza. Its high degree of accessibility and sense of enclosure have given the plaza strong characteristics suited for public gathering.
Frontages at ground level are activated by food and beverages businesses, giving it a vibrant sense of street life for public activities and events.We identified the courtyard plaza as the focal “activity plaza” for the project, acting as the highlight attraction for the commercial hub. The design focuses on creating dynamism of participation and sense of comfort to effectively draw visitors into the courtyard.
Designing Towards Activity:
Being the public hub of the project, we wanted to create festive vibes rendered by active events and interactions. We stepped terraces at the edges of sunken plaza further enhance spatial integratedness, creating better linkages and interactivity between upper and lower levels.
The dry fountains and interactive installation feature at the core of the activity plaza contribute to the vibrant experiential quality here. The abstract shape of the installation mimics the posture of a phoenix dancing on a branch, and it is built-in with atomization system to generate special interactive effects such as fog and smoke bubbles, creating elevated sense of excitements for the interactive plaza.
The dry fountains cover an area of about 80sqm, integrating a variety of fountain sprinklers to achieve dynamic change of rhythms. At night, integrated lighting effects transform the space into a water show sensation, bringing sensorial immersion to visitor experiences. The multiplicity of sounds, lights and waters has successfully activated the space that’s full of fun and surprises.
Food and beverages businesses surround the plaza along street frontages, with provision of outdoor dining pockets under tree canopies. The streets here are pleasant in scale and have a strong recreational atmosphere that’s particularly comforting in the urban environment. Understory planting varieties such as ceratostigma bunge, hydrangea macrophylla ‘endless summer’, liatris spicata (l.) Willd., Agapanthus africanus, gomphostigma virgatum and hydrangea paniculata siebold form richness of experiences for the landscape.
Endnote
Through our innovative practices of systemic design thinking, the design team strives to elevate identity and experiential qualities to tongxiang mixc shopping mall beyond typical landscape design approach. In today’s competitive market of commercial developments, “non-standardized” products are particularly trending; however, they’re also growing increasingly standardized. We strongly believe our organic design methodology with embodiment of commercial logic and identity place-making is key to breakthroughs and innovations for every success of any project.
Gallery:
Drawings:
Project Details:
Name: Tongxiang MixC Commercial Landscape Design
Location: Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province, China
Function: Commercial Public Space
Status: Completed (2024)
Landscape Area: 27000 sq. m.
Landscape Design: FLO Landscape Design (Shanghai) Co. Limited
Team: Kai Fu, Jianhao Sun, Lihui Yang, Yuxin Ge, Kun Liu, Xiaofang Cheng, Jingjing Deng, Qingxin Zheng, Yumeng Liu, Jie Yu, Luhui Xiong
Construction: Shanghai Jing Yi Landscape Technology Co., Ltd.
Client: China Resources Land Limited
Photographs Nancy Studio, MixC Life Style
Description: FLO Landscape Design (Shanghai) Co. Limited
