Vanke Beijing MiniCity
Beijing, China
Located 35 km northwest of Beijing’s Forbidden City in the district of Changping, Vanke Beijing Minicity is the retail and entertainment cornerstone of the Vanke City residential community. Sited on 23K sm, Vanke Beijing Minicity consists of 73K sm of retail development including a signature department store, cinema, restaurants, nightlife entertainment, and a local neighborhood supermarket, as well as 31K sm of residential high-rise units.
Envisioned as both a dynamic daytime shopping destination and an exciting nightlife entertainment district, Vanke Beijing Minicity is defined by two separate streets: Main Street, the ground level shopping environment, and High Street, an elevated indoor/outdoor city street providing access to all the upper-level restaurants and entertainment destinations.
Vanke Beijing Minicity’s Main Street acknowledges the development’s two key northern corners with gracious public plazas and dramatic entrances. The retail environment along Main Street connects these corners through a series of distinct but linked interior spaces. The Shops represents the retail fronting along Nanhuan Road. These boutique retailers help activate the streetscape and create a dynamic shopping environment both outside and in.
On the first three levels of The Shops, the retail functions much like a traditional retail mall with the added visual twist of varied spatial volumes extruding from the Main Street linked spaces. Upon reaching the 4th floor High Street, however, the character of the space significantly changes. Suddenly the composition of form begins to separate out revealing glimpses of outdoor patios and terraces with views to the surrounding city. Above you emerges a city of elegantly composed rectilinear forms. The individual program elements reveal themselves as buildings within a city, providing patrons glimpses of their intended destinations.
The architecture of Vanke Beijing Minicity is intended to be both visually elegant and playful while offering a rational and efficient spatial composition. The careful placement of rectilinear forms with their use of transparency and color suggest a museum quality of architecture while delivering the eye-catching impact that retailers demand. Subtle variation in the fenestration is balanced by a bold and provocative use of cantilevers, towers, roof gardens, and public art.
In the context of today’s China where, architecturally speaking, anything is possible, Vanke Beijing Minicity is a valuable example of quality place-making within an increasingly dense metropolis. Minicity’s unique vertical approach to public place-making will undoubtedly be the centerpiece of Vanke City. With its elegance and bold iconography Vanke Beijing Minicity creates a new attraction that Changping and all of Beijing will flock to see.
