Benoy wins international design competition for Greenland GIC
Benoy has won the international design competition for Greenland Group’s mixed-use development, Greenland GIC, in Chengdu’s city centre.
Benoy has been appointed as masterplanner and architect for the scheme, which will combine five residential towers, three commercial towers, serviced apartments, hotel, retail podium and outdoor pedestrian shopping street. Benoy’s winning design for the Greenland GIC site ultimately dealt best with the brief’s challenging issue of utilising a restricted central park on the site.
Greenland Group recently purchased six separate plots of land to form the 86,000m2 site on which the development will be built. The scheme will form a significant addition to Western China’s important economic centre.
Richard Tang, Divisional Director and Design Leader, comments: “Our concept overturned the planning parameters and questioned the restrictive use of the parkland. The park is the critical fulcrum for the project, which helps to balance all the different elements of the programme. Instead of allowing the brief to restrict our creativity, we sought to create a commercial value, which would far exceed the nature of the park as a standalone entity. The masterplan and architectural design eventually evolved to become an epic narrative about crafting a modern city lifestyle for Chengdu’s new urban elite.”
The development will cover 512,000m2; of which 332,000m2 will be commercially used and 180,000m2 will make up the residential portion. The high-density development will integrate advanced practices for architectural and commercial design as it combines to deliver a mixed-activity hub.
Benoy’s studios in Shanghai and London collaborated together on the winning scheme, which has proved to be synonymous with the firm’s design style as Benoy draws on its global resources. Representing Benoy from London, Chairman Graham Cartledge CBE said: “This is a project of significance for both Benoy and Greenland and marks another chapter in our partnership. There is a natural affinity in our work, Benoy a British-based firm and Greenland a firm based in China, both seeking the inward and outward investment opportunities in our home countries and abroad around the world.”
Cartledge adds: “I am excited for what this competition represents, an exemplary model for future integrated and commercial mixed-use developments in Western China, and also another example of the import and export of knowledge, talent and expertise that is shaping our cities.”
