China boasts a stunning number of 26 World Trade Centers across the country, and the buildings that house them aren’t just for office space anymore. The innovative new design for the Yongjia World Trade Center in the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou by Dutch architecture firm UNStudio will feature a “mixed-use” collection of five skyscrapers of varying heights with an ample amount of green space.
UNStudio's winning design was inspired by “the notion of precious objects on a tray,” according to their description. The site will span an 11-hectare area by the city’s waterfront housing five buildings of differing heights. The “continuous podium landscape occupies the entire site and serves as a tray-like, green plain for the tower,” said the firm.
The WTC will serve as a “green neighborhood in the sky,” and shift the function of the World Trade Center from acting as simply a business and financial district to “a mixed-use development which includes cultural and recreational facilities and a high percentage of residential properties.” The reason for this mixed-use innovation is to encourage both sustainability and economic growth while also “propelling social connectivity and local identity.”
In addition to offices, the new center’s structures will feature retail, leisure, and residential spaces. The two tallest towers will hold the offices for the World Trade Center operations as well as apartments on the upper levels, while the other buildings will serve mixed purposes.
Check out more renderings of the planned project below:
(Visualizations by UNStudio/Moka)