MVRDV has developed a design for the "nature-inspired Oasis Towers" in Nanjing, China. The Netherlands-based architecture practice describes it as a green landscape nestled between two 150-meter-tall towers, promising the building will provide a haven for residents in a dense and rapidly developing part of the city.
It spans two blocks on the edge of a new financial district filled with boxy boring buildings, so "the design has a formal, gridded façade on the outer faces of the perimeter block," and the "exterior skin gives way to the flowing curves of balconies, terraces, rooftops, and small pavilions clad in facades of recycled bamboo." Two 40-story towers wrap around the heart of the project, as described in the press release:
"Peppered with trees and other greenery, the oasis forms a green landscape on the building's cascading terraces, a lush environment for shopping in the building's commercial floors from ground level up to the third floor. This park-like space has a number of functions: it provides cooling and biodiversity, the canopy offers privacy by shielding the residents of the upper floors from the shoppers below, and it creates a walkable environment that connects the two plots across the central road. At the very center of the public space, the landscape steps down below ground level to connect beneath the road, providing a convenient crossing point and allowing access to the metro station beneath the site."
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