JINGDEZHEN CHANGNAN DEVELOPMENT ZONE

Historically, the city of Jingdezhen has been favored by its geographical conditions: the river gave life, the surrounding mountains gave the resources. The original city center was originated along the river banks and the reminiscence of its past is still visible and relevant today. The new urban development of the city follows the diagonal axis of the river and sets two new crucial poles of attraction, business and innovation. Our urban planning strategy is to interlink the new poles with a business and development corridor that integrates and enhances the existing heritage and resources in order to bring back the focus on the prestige of Jingdezhen as the porcelain capital of the world.

Changnan Development Zone is located in a suburban area to the South-West of the city, bordered to the North by hill formations and natural parks enriched by the presence of temples and lakes. Our strategy is to link the site with the surroundings via a car-free green network of paths, courtyards and plazas that runs through every plot of the development. The aim is to create an eco-friendly new district integrated with the surroundings that allows the confluence of nature, historical heritage, education, innovation, and cultural exchange for visitors, workers and local residents.

Several adjustments have been made to the original municipal land use, arranging into macro-clusters the functions and defining a more specific and homogeneous program distribution for each plot. The character of the public space varies adapting to the specific functional clusters that it’s serving.

For each plot of the office cluster we create a large central green park connected to the other plots by wide green corridors; the R&D cluster sees a sequence of smaller green areas serving a more compact distribution of buildings; the cluster including the International Convention and Exhibition Center is instead more open and designed to be a destination for residents and international visitors.

The heart and destination of the development is the International Convention Zone which, crowned by the lush vegetation of the hills to the North, create an evocative backdrop to the central park. The International Convention Center and the Exhibition Center are meant to become a global hot-spot for the ceramics and porcelain industry. The buildings will host conventions, world-expo, fairs, business events and exhibitions representing the absolute excellence in the field of ceramics.

The buildings are arranged in a cluster of independent units seemingly unrelated to each other. The cluster sees the round-shaped units of the International Convention Center to the West and the Exhibition Halls to the East, separate by a large public green area from which is possible to reach the adjacent hills via a set of elevated pathways. The architecture design is inspired once again by the rich history of Jingdezhen and the ancient kilns offer the main theme for the Exhibition Hall. The raw material qualities of ceramics and rammed earth chosen for the architecture envelope are a link with the past and a reference to the natural materials used in pottery making.

The Porcelain Business Zone is the financial core of the district and it represents the Development Zone’s main access from the East. In order to emphasize the central axis we decided to locate at both extremities gateway twin towers which unique shape is inspired by the famous kiln ovens used for centuries in the area to make porcelain. Through a contemporary re-interpretation of such an iconic element of the local tradition, the financial towers stand out over the glass office towers in the background and become scenic landmark buildings giving direction and easy way-finding.

Adjacent and complementary to the financial district is the Research & Development zone. Here, the high-rise buildings are arranged around an interconnected network of central green parks that make up for the green area demand of the development. These ‘green lungs’ provide a generous semi-public open space for leisure and relax of the office workers who can also enjoy the views over the landscape from the continuous terraces above the podiums and from the sky-gardens of the office towers.