Located in the Tongzhou district of Beijing, Urban Creek is an attempt at having architecture merge within various spheres of public space. Designed by ATOL Architects, the project is focuses around the idea that architecture should be conceived as a cultural connective tissue that creates opportunities to link spaces and neighborhoods together. In redefining the very notion of mixed-use from a free standing commercial box/podium/tower typology, this design aims at creating an ever evolving city center to reconnect with its secret past. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Downtown used to be a place of endless spatial encounters, social surprises and intellectual enlightenment where leisurely strolls could cross paths with business meetings. The recent acceleration of urban growth in heavily populated Asian cities has often erased all remaining traces of spatial, social and cultural permeabilities in their new and shining commercial development: the businessman, the global traveler, and the disaffected shopper are the only ones left in the commercial city center while the youth, student, artist, and all other cultural enablers have progressively been relegated to various suburban locations underground, all but invisible to the inhabitants of the corporate sphere.
