Central Business District

Concept

The new Wuchang CBD is located on the banks of the Yangtze River and covers an area of over 140 hectares, with 3 million m² of floor space created. It is organised around two major axes incorporating preserved heritage features: the existing railway line, redeveloped as a public space, and Qinyuan Avenue, transformed into a vast park: the “Urban Salon”. At the crossroads of these two axes, a new architectural landmark is placed, in dialogue with the neighbouring “Wuhan Greenland Center” Tower, through an interplay of intersecting skylines.

The public space of the railway creates a longitudinal link parallel to the river, running right through the Wuchang CBD. The “Urban Salon” combines a wide open space, a linear of high-rise buildings and, as a link between these two elements, a play of volumes and horizontal connections that builds the transition in scale between horizontality and verticality. These horizontal connections, these “synapses”, extend across the whole district and allow an intermediate spatial dimension to be introduced that is as human as it is humanly possible.

Synapses” are linking structures integrating all the soft modes of transport and the shops and services associated with the tertiary complexes, connecting the raised levels and the various podiums to the underground city. They link up with the transport infrastructure (metro and exclusive right-of-way buses) to ensure pedestrian continuity and optimum accessibility at every point on the site. Finally, they rebuild the link between the city and its river.

The development of the various lanes in the new Wuchang CBD has also received special attention and treatment to ensure optimum conditions of comfort, whatever the season, and to encourage soft modes of transport.

Team

Contracting authority
– Contracting authority: Wuhan Natral Resources and Conversation and Utilization Center (ex. WLSP)

Project management
– Architect-Urban planner: Arte Charpentier (Pierre Clément, Andrew Hobson, Mingding Pan, Marie-France Bouet, Fernando Castro, Jing Ke, Wenyi Zhou, Pierre Chambron, Jinyi Li, Yang Liu, Qing Qian, Hailin Zhai)
– Landscaper: Arte Charpentier (Nathalie Leroy Laurène Moraglia, Silvia Pucci, Mathilde Charée)

Public developer
– Wuchang Riverside Management Committee

Design office:
– Transport and mobility: ORYZHOM
– Programming: LDG (Shanghai Longilat Architectural Design and Research)

Specificities
– Address: Wuchang District, 430000, Wuhan, China