Under Construction | 2021-2023

 

300,000 sqm | Planning, Residential, Design Village, Culture, Landscape, Waterfront

 

Client | Suzhou Xiangcheng District Government

 

Having won the international competition to master plan Suzhou’s Qing Tai District, formally a collection of semi-industrial buildings and shop houses; SPARK is delighted to announce that the 31,000sqm first phase of the project has started construction.

This nascent phase comprises a SPARK designed “Urban Market” and a “village” of design studios. At the heart of the village is a sunken courtyard surrounded by restaurants and gallery designed specifically to showcase the work of the resident artists and designers.

The proposals were inspired by the processional principles of traditional Chinese garden design and landscape painting, the idea of creating a ‘social picturesque’ where the views to and from the buildings arranged around the waterfront.

SPARK’s design creates a transformed identity for this Suzhou district. A destination due for completion Q2 2023 that will draw visitors to its cultural and economic network of extraordinary programmes and events.


“You could describe our master plan as “architectural acupuncture” which strategically touches the district to create points of interest, a connected chain of navigable events and spaces that combine to form an interpretation of the “social picturesque” tradition, a new people centric cultural quarter for Suzhou”

- stephen pimbley, lead partner at spark

“There is great subtlety in this “poetic” approach with the built interventions stemming from the desire to create a connected cultural-tourism destination around water, a catalyst for a future inspired by the best of the past.”

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