PROJECT: Dongjiakou Urban Design

Qingdao China 2013

We started to develop a new proposal by initially considering the historical and natural points of interest in the area.

This resulted in an axis which crosses the plot marking the direction of Huangdao Mount and Lang Ya Tai. This cross turns into the heart of the proposal; a walkway is created in order to connect the west and north urban areas to the green areas on the south and east. This walkway turns the site into a sort of bridge - an interesting and comfortable area to access the green areas.

This walkway is also characterized by 3 plazas and its relation with water which guides people south to the river and the yacht marina. The 3 plazas are also defined by 3 iconic elements - on the north the office and retail building, in the center the service center working as a connector, an information distribution point, and finally on the south the hotel.

Through the walkway there are streets to the east guiding to the green area on the east, and it’s where the clubhouses are located giving a strong character and relevance in the general organization. This location is also important due to the visibility from the east especially from the busy avenue. Then on the west of the main walkway, is a central area and with a strong connection with the green on the south, are located the villas, in this quieter area of the plot and with abundance of natural landscape. On the west next to the road and the dense surrounding areas we positioned the residential due to the more urban character of these buildings so that they will be more integrated with the adjacent future urban developments.

For most of the buildings we used new interpretations of typical courtyards, providing a modern and dynamic character matching with nowadays way of living, at the same time we generate an interesting and unique urban fabric, defining an important and attractive area in the overall master plan as well as influencing the surroundings and helping turn them more successful, through the sequence of plazas, walkways revealing a very strong pedestrian value to be used as a connector to the greens areas and as leisure zone.