Xiamen Dream City
Program: Mixed-use luxury retail, entertainment and residential development
Location: Xiamen, China
Year: 2011
The design concept for Xiamen Dream City integrates the project with its beachfrontsite by materializing as a series of buildings imbedded within an urban landscape deck that appears to emerge from the beach itself. The contour lines of the natural topography of the site are conceived as a dynamic vector field which has been activated by the strategic placement of key programmatic elements.
These elements act as invisible forces which disturb the field and re-organize the arrangement of the contours to form a continuous and rippling surface of undulating dunes, canyons, and valleys which define a network of public plazas, linear gardens, and winding pathways at surface level. Below the surface, the deck peels away to reveal the contents of the low-rise buildings embedded within the landscape.
The dynamic and cascading effect of the openings articulate a series of protected terraces, waterfront views, and sculptural north-facing roof lights for the retail, dining, and entertainment venues at lower levels.