Image Credit : Lead8
Project Overview
The Ring in Chongqing is a ground-breaking ecological retail destination featuring one of China’s largest indoor botanic gardens.
Setting new benchmarks for experiential destinations in China, The Ring’s vision is truly innovative. The design seeks to deliver a new-generation social destination, an urban natural community, and a landmark regional commercial centre. The power of biophilia and our desire to be close to nature is front and centre, pushing the agenda forward for future commercial developments.
The development is the first to be completed within Hongkong Land’s ‘The Ring’ retail series. Located in the Jinzhou Business District, the scheme is set within Chongqing’s residential centre, next to the picturesque Zhaomushan Forest Park.
The development occupies 430,000sqm with approximately 154,000sqm dedicated to the seven-level mall, 14,000sqm to the retail street, 111,000sqm to the super grade A office building and 6,000sqm to the indoor botanical garden. Direct connections to Chongqing Metro Line 5 (completed) and Line 15 (in planning) bring a transit-oriented approach to deliver convenient access across the city.
The innovative interior design centres on a ‘Mountain City’ concept; reimagining the natural terrain of Chongqing and expressing it in a contemporary way. Cutting-edge and environmental protection technologies were used to construct the green ecological experience, producing an oasis for the city.
Complementing the indoor gardens, specialty activity hubs such as the ‘Free+’ dynamic sporting facility and ‘Open Lab’, a calm public space for reading and gathering, help meet the diverse demands of changing consumer preferences.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Project Brief
Setting new benchmarks for experiential destinations in China, The Ring’s vision aimed to be truly innovative. The design seeks to deliver a new-generation social destination, an urban natural community, and a landmark regional commercial centre.
The brief called for a scheme to innovatively combine urban living and the beauty of nature in one space. The key objective was to align with the developer’s four core values for the destination – “Organic, Respectful, Inspiring and Magnetic,” – as well as representing the brand philosophy for The Ring that is “Living Mall, Living More”.
To meet these objectives, Lead8 introduced new experiences that cannot be found in other developments in Chongqing or neighbouring cities. The 42-metre-tall botanic garden, interactive sports and culture facilities, family and child-friendly activities, and a vibrant dining and shopping scene all under one roof provide first-of-their-kind attractions to bring a new lifestyle to offer to the city and Chongqing’s community.
Project Innovation/Need
The Ring’s indoor botanical garden, coupled with its sports and culture-themed interactive offerings, break traditional space limitations and bring people together with nature. The development’s programming features a diverse collection of spaces that form a creative mix and offering that spans sports and leisure, edutainment, family, dining and culture.
Botanical Garden (B1-L6):
The 6,000 sqm, 42m-tall indoor garden with thousands of plants and a waterfall offering a biophilic experience.
Oasis Walk:
A series of connected, elevated ramps that allow visitors to immerse themselves in the botanical garden’s multiple levels.
Free+ Sports Zone (L3-5):
The multi-sports events area with digital integration, e-gaming and an iconic staircase for audience seating.
OPEN LAB Cultural Forum (L3-5):
A calm public space for reading and gathering to relax, enjoy, share and socialise.
Children’s Zone (L2):
The themed playground surrounded by a children-related trade and entertainment mix, including Hongkong Land’s Kidsplorer STEAM play centre.
Commune Village (L4-5):
An internal dining street with double storey shopfronts designed by specialty F&B tenants.
To integrate the botanic garden, cutting-edge and environmental protection technologies were used to construct the green ecological experience. To maximise visibility, a glass-curtain wall helps to open views to the multi-storey indoor gardens and Oasis Walk from the exterior. A large-scale sculptural installation looks into the glass-curtain wall from the outside, to draw visitor’s attention to the attraction that awaits inside.
Design Challenge
When the brief was first received, the botanic garden element was not a major component of the destination. Lead8’s team worked to develop the concept and expand the interior landscape into a major design intervention that integrated a multi-level living garden into the retail mall. Throughout this process, Lead8 worked to refine the connective layers of the design, working with structural engineers, landscape consultant and client to develop the Oasis Walk that would allow visitors to directly interact with the gardens at all levels.
The collaboration between the numerous specialist consultants was one of the greatest challenges of the project. Working with a living ecosystem that also needed to function within a commercial indoor environment required design strategies from lighting specialists, engineers, landscapers, interior designers and retail planners to all come together seamlessly.
Sustainability
The biophilic design showcases the indoor botanical garden as the centrepiece of the interiors. With thousands of plants covering hundreds of species, the garden offers a living, sunlit environment to enrich the interior experience.
The multi-level garden connects with each of the mall’s seven levels, and the interior design has blended in the natural atmosphere by way of the material palette and open-space planning. Elevated walkways, public seating and hanging fixtures create intimacy with nature and help to extend the gardens upwards. The design creates nodal spaces for rest, events and social opportunity, while immersing the surrounding retail activities in an ecological setting.
Within the botanical garden, the natural atmosphere is blended into the main atrium to feel like one unified space with the help of the flooring design, ceiling materials and 24-metre-tall recycled-water feature. The design essentially delivers a year-round green space for the community and protected landscape for Chongqing.
A natural earthy interior design palette was selected to complement the biophilic space inside. Environmentally-friendly products were prioritised in the selection as the design team felt strongly about the building’s performance. Handling a project of this magnitude meant sourcing local materials wherever possible is a very vital move. It also creates an easier strategy to maintain the building into the future
The scheme is based on sustainable principles and the success of the project will see the ‘urban-nature-community’ concept serve as a pioneering model and example for other cities across the Chinese mainland.
Interior Design - Retail
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes and aesthetic presentation. Consideration given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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