Times Guangzhou E-PARK Phase II

Location: Guangzhou, China

Completion Date: 2022

Building Area: 98,982 sqm

Design Principal: Ping Jiang, FAIA

Design Team: Michelle Bao, Sean Lu, Xiaohai Lin, Kai Ding, Mingwei Shen, Michael Morgan, Feng Zhao, Ben Xie, Jin Meng, Wenjia Wang, Wei Xu, Kailin Sun, Siyuan Zhang, Chunru Xia, Zhonghan Tan, Yixuan Cheng, Xiaohui Tang, Yinzi Jiangche, Fangzi He, Di Fan, Chendi He

Client: Times China

Consultants:

LDI/MEP/Structural Engineer：Janson Xian Architect+Associates/Guangzhou Hanhua Architects+Engineers Co., Ltd.

Curtain Wall Consultant：Guangzhou TEC Architectural Technology Co.,Ltd

Landscape Consultant: Shenzhen L&A Design Holding Limited

Interior Consultant: C&C DESIGN Co., Ltd.(office) / DU Studio(Retail)/ Shenzhen Jayen Creative Design Co., Ltd (Retail)

Lighting Consultant：brandston partnership inc.

Times E-PARK occupies a total GFA of approximately 210,000 ㎡, of which Phase II takes 100,000 ㎡. Phase II consists 70,000 ㎡ of 3 office buildings, 27,000 ㎡ of boutique lifestyle center - CR8, and 4,000 ㎡ of outdoor garden-style social gathering space. The project aims to create an innovative business park with extraordinary community experience as well. It builds a new urban three-dimensional area connecting nature and humanity, business and leisure.

A New Paradigm for Business Park

The original industrial park is developed in two phases; Phase I of the business office park was completed in 2017. With the rapid development of the changing demands, EID Arch reconfigured Phase II based on the original planning framework of Times E-PARK. Through the creation of integrated indoor and outdoor spaces, the design aims to create an urban hybrid integrating office, commercial, cultural, social and other diversified functions and sceneries. Times Guangzhou E-PARK Phase II supplemented and optimized the urban functions, which meet the industrial park’s needs of innovation and iteration, reshape the urban public space, and regenerate the community vitality.

The Hybrid as Urban Plug-in

As a boutique urban mixed-use, the project is like a miniature of city Guangzhou. It strives to use rich architectural language to vividly display the urban image and revitalized community status of the modern city: the integration of modernity and tradition, urban and rural, culture and nature. The main office space is composed of three business buildings with staggered layout. The subtle layout of horizontal movements creates plain and neat facade. The design team pays attention to the shading of the south side, the view conditions of the north side, and the stepped height difference ensures the optimization of views.

The modern urban space recalls the traditional arcade-house typology, that reminds people the historical memory in this ever-changing modern urban life. The elevation of the higher portion follows the basic pattern of the original master plan of Phase I. With various facade design and abundant geometrical-block design languages, the lower area has become an urban open plaza integrating publicity, exhibition and commerce. The combination of high and low zones in this project creates a rich layered and dynamic urban interface.

Integration and Innovation: New Gathering Place for Art

Different from the traditional pattern of “candle on the cake” between the podium and tower of commercial mixed-use, EID Arch actively explored the new paradigm of urban mixed-use and inserts a boutique community commercial space (CR8) on the basis of Phase II business park, that aiming to create a "New Gathering Place for Art". As the infrastructure of urban activities, this project absorbs nutrients from nature, art, and fashion, that deeply excavates diversified lifestyles and eventually reshapes urban lifestyle. The combination of the commercial center and the natural landscape creates a shopping-in-hanging-garden experience for the fast-paced urban life, that forms a series of iconic social destinations.

New Workplace Experience with Greenery Weaving through

The office space is filled with a large amount of vegetation terraces, flower beds and other shared green architectural landscape. These well-positioned terrace walkways are the convenient connection of the inside working area, and the natural penetration and extension of the outside commerce. The multi-dimensional landscape platform is inspired by the hills, terraces in Lingnan. It allows the greenery to flow and gently blurs the boundaries between city, nature and architecture. The receding terraces are combined with local tropical plants to provide the visitors an experience of returning to nature.

The office adopts eccentric core layout to maximize the open space and natural light. The overall tonality is based on gray and white, and the subtle texture reflects the modern flavor of high-end business. Through outdoor market, shared terrace and other elements, nature and social interaction are truly immerged into the working space for work communication, leisure consumption, social gathering and conversation with nature. The design precisely achieves the focus of the composite function.

In Times Guangzhou E-PARK Phase II, the distinctive but inclusive spirit of local culture have been fully reflected. The design takes the Lingnan culture as theme, while combining the hybrid function, the sense of rhythm, the richness of the facade, as well as the local commercial culture together successfully to adopt a plug-in of the city. This project functions as a filter of the contemporary urban life and an architectural montage that combines the virtual and the real. It reflects the rapid integration and transformation of old urban village in Guangzhou for the past few years, as well as the process of urban development with diversity and vitality. Meanwhile, Times Guangzhou E-PARK Phase II has established a new benchmark and a civic public space with a sense of belonging.