Taiyuan Wanda Plaza
The completed Taiyuan Wanda Plaza is located at the Longtan district. It is a new city complex including a shopping mall, outdoor shopping street, a hotel, two office towers and a few residential blocks. In 2013 HYHW Architecture Consulting Ltd won the competition to design the shopping mall and the office towers.
Taiyuan is known in China as the dragon city, and Longtan means Dragon Lake. The architects drew inspiration from this theme for facade design, and made the main building look like it’s covered with dragon skin. Scales are mimicked by perforated aluminium panels, some of which have a dark blue reflective glass part to add extra dynamism to the facade. Underneath this smooth unified facade, a series of contrasting colorful storefronts are designed to appear different from one another.
The two main entrances are accentuated by large arches and triple height atriums. The arches once again have a dragon reference, and on the front layer of glass a pattern is fritted to refer to the angled scales of the main facade. The sides of the arches features protruding light dots of different diameters.
The curtain wall for the office buildings rising above the shopping mall features two series of aluminium fins: the first set of vertical fins between the glass panels, and a second diagonal set that adds extra dynamism.
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