Suzhou Centre
China
View Project
Suzhou Central
- Client
- Suzhou Industrial Park Jinji Lake Urban Development, CapitaMalls Asia
- Services
- Architecture, Interior design, Landscape Architecture, Masterplanning
- Sector
- Mixed Use, Retail
- Location
- Suzhou, China
- Sustainability Accreditations
- China Two-star Green Building Design Label LEED (US Green Building Council)
Suzhou Central, is an 188,000 m² retail-led development on the right bank of Jinji Lake in Suzhou Industrial Park. The scheme sits at the centre of an emerging business and cultural quarter on the east bank of the lake, with direct metro access via Line 8 at Right Bank Street Station.
Dates2017
Size
1,130,000m²
340,000m² retail GFA
A design drawn from the Gusu Prosperity Map
The architectural language is drawn from the Gusu Prosperity Map, an 18th-century Qing Dynasty painting by Xu Yang that documents Suzhou’s commercial and civic life at its height. The reference is translated into a contemporary retail typology that blurs the boundary between mall and street: terraced commercial streets are folded into the building’s stepped massing, and pathways move between indoor and outdoor space across multiple levels, so the building reads as part of the surrounding city rather than a contained interior.
A three-dimensional plaza under a fan-shaped canopy
At the heart of the scheme, a three-dimensional plaza draws lakeside views into the shopping environment, with steps, terraces and outdoor seating composed so that retail and public realm operate as a single landscape. Above, a fan-shaped canopy provides sun and rain protection and gives the building a defining roofline at the scale of the lake frontage. Close coordination with the luxury brands taking space in the development has kept leasing strategy and design moving together through delivery. Suzhou Central sits within a wider precinct on the lake’s right bank that also includes the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the Suzhou Contemporary Art Museum, the Suzhou Eye Ferris Wheel and the Right Bank Living Room.
